


Ignis Faetus

by UsagiSquared



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-17 06:07:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 58
Words: 53,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11269524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UsagiSquared/pseuds/UsagiSquared
Summary: Crossover; Back in the days of Team Satisfaction, Jack Atlas loses his life for the sake of his friends... ...and for the sake of Satellite, the 'unreachable' island, the Man in the Moon raises up the former Signer whose burning soul can still be used for much more.





	1. Chapter 1

“ _Hold on!_ ”

The memory was vague, as such brief memories oft became.

The more he grasped at it however the clearer it became, with the vision of it faded at the edges, as though he was looking at it through a paper tube.

His hands were sweating, gripping Crow’s wrists tight. At the moment he was looking into the boy’s eyes, which were wide with terror and fear as he dangled above the distant and rocky waves below.

“ _HOLD ON!_ ” he repeated louder, adjusting his grip. His ankles were caught in the cracks of broken concrete and twisted rebar, but the hold would only last so long. Behind him he could hear the shouts of their friends as they struggled to reach them- Yuusei shouting for them to wait just a little longer, Kiryu snarling at the ones who had thrown Crow over the edge and left them to deal with the chain reaction-

He could hear them, but their voices faded to an almost nonexistent extent in his memory.

“ _Hold on Crow_ ,” he’d ordered of the boy, “ _Hold on!_ ”

However for all of Crow’s silent and panicked nodding, he himself would not last long. His grip was fading, same as the latch the building itself created. He was going to fall.

And Crow would come with him if he didn’t move.

As the boy looked down he snapped to him, “ _Don’t look away!_ ” Crow had brought his eyes back to his almost immediately, and he continued- “ _Keep your eyes on me, understand!?_ ”

They were going to fall. That much, he knew, and whether or not Crow had guessed as well, who knew.

He was going to fall- and so, strengthening his grip, he swung.

“HRAA _AAAA-AH!_ ”

“ ** _JACK_** -!”

By the same force that allowed him to send Crow back over the edge to safety, he felt his legs free themselves from the prison of concrete and steel which had kept him ‘safe’. He’d fallen back, down, to the cold depths below…

“HhhA _AAA-AH!_ ”

  …And with a shuddered breath opened his eyes to meet with the light of the moon.

The memory of how he had come to survive was faded- if anything, he would have gone so far as to say he hadn’t.

However as the memory replayed through his mind with all the insisting repetition of a drumming beat, the beating pulse joined in alongside it. The pulse, and, as he looked over his already dry hand in minute disbelief, a faint and unidentifiable voice-

’ _Jack_ ’

“What?”

The voice was quiet, yet clear, demanding, yet calm. As he looked to the light of the moon, he almost wondered if that was the source of it-

’ _Jack- the lantern_ ,’ he thought it said.

“What did you say?!” he shouted, standing up from the ground with a snarling scowl. There was no answer, and so he continued, louder, “WHO ARE YOU!?”

Silence was the initial response- and again the voice spoke without speaking, lightly bristling in the back of his mind-

’ _I am the Man in the Moon. And you,’_ it whispered, ’ _Are Jack of the Lantern, the Will of the Wisp._ ’

The confidence of the tone caught him off guard- the ridiculousness of the words more-so, prompting him to regard the moon above with annoyed disbelief before turning back to the ruinous city he’d spent all his life in. He hit his head, he told himself, running off to find the way to the hideaway he’d come to see as home with the others. He’d hit his head, he needed to sleep it off- that was all it was.

He told himself this, and above him, the moon merely glistened.

In time after all he would realize the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Given the timing used in this fanfic, I'll be noting at the bottom of certain entries how old everyone is; this is partially to help keep track of everything over all. As a side note BECAUSE of the ages, this is probably not going to focus on too many ships in the way most expect.
> 
> In this case in particular;
> 
> Jack Atlas dies age 14 (Birthday in January)  
> Kiryu Kyosuke is 16 and literally turning 17 in One Day (his birthday is Nov. 1)  
> Yuusei is 13 (birthday in July)  
> Crow is 12 (birthday in September)


	2. Chapter 2

Their door wasn’t so much a door as a thick curtain of fabric that they’d been lucky enough to find in one piece, but it did the job just as well, or so they always told themselves. It wasn’t as though most of the rooms had windows anyway, so they tended to just sleep in relatively close quarters for heat, taking advantage of the basement that hadn’t caved in like so many others.

He told himself that this was why they didn’t realize he’d come back when he did- he spent almost the entire evening running and walking home, boots clacking against the ground as he went curiously unhindered in his trek. Despite the chill in the air, he didn’t feel cold, not really- as though he was wrapped in the blankets from Martha’s home, curled up by a fire, he felt warmer than he had in almost all his life.

Probably just all the running he was doing, he figured in the end, and as he came in from under the door he found himself smiling slightly. “Hey!” he shouted, walking in toward the main room. “I’m back!”

“ _…can’t believe he did that,_ ” he could hear Crow muttering still, “I- Why did he do that!?”

“Why else? He was our friend. And we were his- of course he would try to do something.”

“He was ‘Jack’.”

Jack frowned as he looked over the three, eyes narrowed. There was no way they didn’t hear that after all, that shouting- no way!

So he clenched his fists, storming over with a scowl. “OI! I said I was back!” he roared, only to freeze as Crow stood to move.

“I’m going to sleep,” he said almost quietly, the tone all too foreign coming from Crow’s voice. Before Jack could do more than scowl at the boy before him he stiffened, the air seeming to be torn from his lungs as Crow walked through his being.

“Gh- _aAAAAAH-_!” He stumbled, hand clutching his chest as he turned. “W-What?”

“I’m going to sleep too,” Kiryu decided grimly, and as he passed through the space Jack stood in he turned, looking to the last of their number. “You coming, Yuusei?”

Jack’s hand gripped the side of one of the room’s chairs, and he forced himself to regain his breath. What was this, he wanted to ask, why couldn’t they see him, why couldn’t they hear him-!

“Aah,” Yuusei decided, and as he walked past Jack found himself shuddering, side of his body briefly filtering through that of his friend’s with no notice given by the others. “Sleep is a good idea, right now.”

How long he remained in that room, Jack wasn’t sure. It wasn’t long before he was alone, and it wasn’t long before the daylight hours were truly upon them, but when he heard the footsteps of the others he found himself leaving before going through the ordeal once more.

Dimly, the voice he’d heard the night before rang through him once again, but once again he squashed it, merely looking to put as much distance between himself and the very place he’d come to call his home.

Dead. That was what he was, wasn’t it? He was dead, a 'ghost’, right?

Dead.

So what the hell was he meant to do now, then?


	3. Chapter 3

He wasn’t normal, even without the ‘ghost’ thing to consider.

With the light of the sun to reveal all, and a few glass windows nearby, that much had been clear.

Red.

His eyes were _red_ , skin darkened and his hair as well- as though he were looking at himself as he would appear in the middle of the night, illuminated by nothing but the fire of an oil drum. The clothes were the same- if not strangely charred at the edges- however he was not, that much was clear.

As the days came to pass, even more would come to 'light’, all puns aside. Fire from his hands and just as easily anywhere he could see, fire that gave heat and light, and nothing else. It couldn’t burn- it couldn’t touch anything really.

Like him.

No one could touch him, and he himself had the same disadvantage. No one could hear him, yet he could hear all they said. No one could see him-

As though he had never existed, as though he was less than even a figment of their imagination.

Yet they could see the fires, he would come to realize. They could see the fires and they could feel its heat, and more importantly he would find, they were drawn to it. As a moth to flame they would come toward it, for at least as long as he held the flame or held interest in the act.

If he wished, they would pay it no mind. If he wished, the allure of the wisp was nothing to them, just as gravity seemed to no longer affect himself.

If it was warm, he could use it. If it held the slightest bit of heat to it, he could ride the currents of the wind as though he weighed no more than a speck of ash, floating high above the ruinous city to be met with sights none could ever have witnessed.

He could see Neo Domino and beyond.

He could see the water that lay between, and somehow the memory of the chill that it brought was more than enough to keep him at bay.

So instead he wandered Satellite. Instead, he wandered with his fire lighting the way, either ignored or fled from as he passed.

He saw more of Satellite than all his friends could have ever done, he thought. From the peaceful calm that was Martha’s home to the farthest reaches of the B.A.D area- all that was missing was the great pit at the epicenter, and he had no interest in diving into its depths. He wandered- and he wandered some more, until a few months after his own death, he could no longer stand to witness what he saw as he wandered.

“Hfff- Ngh…”

There was a boy hiding nearby, he noted quickly enough. A small boy with red hair, covered by a golden yellow cap. He was hiding under a bit of wreckage, and soon enough Jack realized why.

“Where are yeh, you worthless little shit…”

“Mn?”

“Sff-Nn-!” While Jack looked from the boy to the large and clearly drunk man, the boy cringed and pulled back into his hiding place. The man meanwhile came closer, muttering curses under his breath as a now broken bottle was gripped loosely in his hand-

And without a moment’s thought, he knew what was going to happen next. “No!” he snarled, charging the man in a rage. “You get away from h-!”

His fist passed through, and as he stumbled the rest of him followed.

“Gh-hA _AAAhh-h_ … Hah-”

“No no no no no-” The boy behind him trembled as the man approached, and Jack turned back with wide eyes. “No no no, I didn’t do anything, I swear it _please_ -!”

“ _There_ you are…”

“No no, no- NO-!”

“HEY!” Jack snarled, eyes sparking as he stood. “I SAID GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

The fire was irresistible if he so willed it. Alluring, tempting- a fire that could never be touched, and the flame flickering before the drunk’s eyes were more than enough to keep his attention.

That, however, would not be enough.

Another flame, he asked of himself, and with those thoughts another flame appeared. The drunk’s eyes glazed and drew toward it, and slowly his steps shuffled away from the boy. Another flame then, Jack snarled mentally, and another, and another, and those which he couldn’t see returned to him as always whilst the rest continued their path ahead. The further he led him, the more he cemented his decision, sending himself into the air and setting a path of lights for his target and only him.

A trail of fire which drifted off the edge of the cliffs which were bridged between B.A.D and the remainder of Satellite…

At which point, he found himself returning to the boy. He was cold- so he gave him a light, watching as the child stared to it curiously before swiftly holding his hands around it in relief. He was cold, and he needed somewhere safe.

“Stay here,” he told the boy, not that he was likely heard. He took to the skies and after some searching returned once more, bringing another flame into existence.

“Okay,” he decided. “Now follow me.”

He couldn’t touch anyone. He couldn’t defend anyone with his fists, he couldn’t warn anyone with his voice.

However with that in mind then, he decided, he would just make sure that danger was led to its own end.


	4. Chapter 4

He had been dead for over a month.

Jack’s boots kicked against the air as he soared, though to call it ‘soaring’ would be more than debatable. Flailing would be more accurate- he could only barely control what direction he moved through the air, relying on the heat within it to carry him upward. With the approaching chill of December, flight at levels higher than the roofs of the buildings was becoming something of an impossibility.

Not that this stopped him from trying of course.

Over a month of being unable to speak or touch any living human being, and his flight took him over a district of the B.A.D area, the teen pausing as he looked below. It was strangely crowded for the B.A.D area to say the least- the rooftops had at least five people lying in wait behind the walls and ledges, each gripping a duel disk tight. Floating down to alight upon one of the roofs himself, he could see even more people in the windows-

Along with three all too familiar others down the way. “Crow,” he shouted in shock, voice of course unheard. “Yuusei, Kiryu-!”

As he shouted, those on the rooftops sprung to action, numbering forty at the minimum against the trio below. Shouts of shock and annoyance sounded clearly from the three- however despite this they gained an advantage within minutes, facing as many as four at once in their duels.

Some were more savvy than that- some did not bother with the duel disk.

It was these sorts with which Jack chose to claim battle with. “If you’re not going to duel then you can leave!” he spat, tossing fire to those readying ambush. “Don’t bring a duel disk to a fist fight!”

He did not lead them off ledges and cliffs of course- that would be too much. However, if they found themselves in a rather compromising location, well! It was none of his business, wasn’t it?

“Tch.” He snorted, clapping his hands and turning to Crow. “You done yet-?” he started, before freezing.

Crow of course took down his opponents with ease- nothing less from 'the bullet’, Crow Hogan of 'Satisfaction’. However as the younger’s hand briefly waved through him, it seemed he only then recalled his place among them. “HOIIIII!” Crow shouted toward the others, spotting Yuusei and Kiryu both upon a distant roof. “All clear here! You?”

Briefly the two shared a glance, before looking back and nodding. “Heh! Not a one in sight that hasn’t had their ass handed to them!” Kiryu laughed, grinning. “We’ve done it!”

Done- “AH- O-Oi, don’t tell me you already-”

With no knowledge that his voice had sounded, Jack’s question was cut off by an elated response from his friend. “That- That’s everyone!?” he asked, his own successful grin widening. “All of Satellite-!”

Yes. All of it.

“WE DID IT!” Crow laughed. “We actually did it, within just a year-!”

“What’d I tell you guys, we made something _happen_! This is the start of a truly satisfying life!”

“WHOO _OOOOO!_ ”

Yuusei of course was silent as usual, though smiling nonetheless as the other two celebrated. However Jack as well found himself watching quietly, as though viewing the celebration as a surreal dream. That was right- he hadn’t been with them for the weeks between death and now. Whatever battles they’d fought he’d been entirely absent, even from the sidelines.

That was right- even if he helped then as he had now, they wouldn’t have noticed. It would have been passed off as little more than an oddity, the enemy wandering from the battle in a daze, the vision of a small flame seen as nothing but a hallucination.

Right.

He couldn’t take part in this celebration.

While a sour feeling grew in his chest at those thoughts however, flames threatening to appear at his side as if to say 'look, I’m still here!’, he turned, taking to the skies and putting as much distance between himself and them as he possibly could once more.

It had been their fight after all. It was no longer his.

Nothing on their plane of existence could be his.


	5. Chapter 5

The fist connected with his cheek and repulsion was imminent, with heat melting ice and frigid wind snuffing flame.

Such a simple curiosity it had been, which inspired the confrontation. The lights in Japan and most of Asia for that matter were never quite as bright as those of the other continents; whenever he looked to the globe at the North Pole it was typically places such as North America and Europe where such things were centered. There were a few that were world wide however; countries that had long since felt the effects of Christmas’ commercial aspect, and while the start of belief was not so pleasant the continuation was. Bunnymund would always lament the lack of activity he had in these areas however- and while the Sandman assisted somewhat in rectifying this, that did not change one thing.

“Gh-!” Jack Frost stumbled and flew under the force of the next punch directed at his face, staff gripped tight in one hand nonetheless. The stars he momentarily saw in his eyes were so similar to the lights of the globe really…

The same lights that had been entirely absent from a small region of Japan for almost fifteen years.

“WHO ARE YOU!?” The boy behind him snarled, fire lighting his hands. Jack Frost merely pulled himself up with his staff, wiping the wound from the fist.

There were no believers in this place. That much had been obvious the moment he arrived. No one knew why that was the case- the Sandman couldn’t reach the island for reasons unknown, and the same applied to the fairies at Tooth’s command. With no believers there were no lists of ‘naughty’ or 'nice’ for North to look over, and as for Bunnymund?

His warren tunnels got as close as Neo Domino before stopping completely, and water was not kind to him.

The ice spirit laughed through his pain as the fiery one attempted another strike, forcing himself through the air with a grin. “What?” he asked, smile on his face. “Haven’t you ever heard of 'Jack Frost’?”

He did not expect to meet anyone else in this place, let alone encounter an attack. The fact that the attacker pursued him was even more surprising, even amusing, to say the least. There were no believers in Satellite; so why expect anyone at all?

More importantly, he thought with a grin, why expect anyone he hadn’t _met?_

“Y- Your name is _Jack_!?” his attacker questioned, sounding almost incredulous at the fact.

“Well it’s not so impossible is it?” he laughed. “I’m surprised- I’d have thought my name was pretty well known by this point!”

Another fist to dodge, and another laugh, and as he darted through the air his opponent snarled. “ANSWER MY QUESTION!” the nameless boy roared, throwing the fire as Jack Frost dodged.

“Hey now that’s no fair,” he countered, swinging his staff around the spire of a ruined building. “I answered one question already! You should answer mine in exchange- wo _aH_ -!”

Fires dodged, the opponent created a new string to attack with. “And this is my city!” he retorted in rage. “It’s under _my_ protection!”

“Great! So you won’t mind if we have a little bit of fun then will you? AH-!” He ducked beneath a shot of flame, looking back as it faded from existence behind him. “Guess not!”

“AAAAA _ARRRRRRHHH_ -!”

The chase through the air continued, and still Jack Frost laughed. He’d hardly expected this when he came, offering to investigate the reason for such a populated region to be devoid of belief- in fact, he’d almost wondered if the population listing hadn’t been a glitch. And yet…

“Hahahah!” He dodged another stream of flame, tumbling through the air and away from the blond that was in pursuit. “Man, you’re persistent! We only just met, no reason to get so _heated_!”

The blond’s response was to scowl darkly, landing upon the roof of the building across from him. “You,” he started, seemingly struggling to catch his breath as fire licked his arms.  "What. Are you. _Doing_ here!?“

This argument was just getting boring at this point, Jack Frost decided- and idly tossing a snowball up in down in his hand he sighed. ” _Sheesh_! You’re one special stick in the mud now aren’t you? I gave you my name didn’t I?“ he added, hopping over and around as the blond lashed out with his fires. "So what’s yours?”

“Just answer the question!” the other snapped, jumping toward the ice spirit in continued pursuit.

Again the spirit laughed. “You first!” he countered, and with the staff he held tossed the snowball at his opponent’s face. “Come on, lighten up and have some fun!”

If he expected his magic to be so easily repelled, his reaction showed otherwise. And while the melted snow dripped from the flaming boy’s face, the nameless spirit’s anger was more than evident.

“The only one having 'fun’ here is YOU,” he roared, the fires seeming to leap from his entire upper body. “And you’re doing no one any good with it! So answer my question,” the spirit snapped, red eyes gleaming behind the flames. “Who are you? And more importantly,” he growled, “ _How can you see me!_?”

The question caught him off guard this time, and as he hovered above the shoreline waters that their chase had brought him to, he frowned. “How- What do you mean see you?” he asked, shaking his head. “You can’t _not_ know-”

His words were cut short by a growling mutter, the blond narrowing his eyes. “Answer the question,” he hissed warningly, cracking his knuckles in a fist. “And watch it- you’re the first one I’ve been able to properly fight for a _long_ time.”

At the fire spirit’s remark Jack Frost froze, eyes wide- and quite suddenly as a wash of illness swept over him, it struck him.

The windows of the buildings here were blown inward, a fact he hadn’t paid any mind to. He had no reason to desire heat after all, and no reason to wish it enclosed- what was an open window to him?

What was a city of open windows, of people without shoes and jackets, frantically rubbing their fingers, to _him_ , who radiated naught but cold?

He looked back to the blond, and to his fires, and his eyes widened further. “ _You’re_ -”

The flames jumped, and as they shot forward the ice spirit soared back in surprise. “JACK ATLAS,” the flaming boy snarled. “AND YOUR _ICE_ ISN’T WELCOME HERE!”

With the wave of fire that was sent toward him, Frost finally turned to flee the island, only glancing back when he was certain the fire wouldn’t hit him. And the longer he thought on it, the more he realized what he’d witnessed just now, turning to look up at the night sky as the moon gleamed above.

“…Just what are you up to,” he wondered aloud, staring at it with narrowed eyes.

He received no answer, of course, but it made him feel somewhat better to at least ask in the end.


	6. Chapter 6

In the days of Early December, one would have thought there was no time for meetings with Nicholas St. North; Christmas was right around the corner, with the final touches of toys finished as they were all packed for the coming night. Entering North’s workshop would have been out of the question-

Except, as Bunnymund warningly stated when Frost returned, that they had once done the same to him when it was Easter- severe circumstances or not, when was the last time _Jack Frost_ requested a ‘meeting’?. And so the Guardians were gathered together, for the first time in a small number of years since the rise of Pitch Black, to listen.

’ _There’s someone there_ ,’ he’d told them. Someone with fire that brought heat without burning, someone who had claimed the island as 'his’ to look over. Someone with no believers, none at all, and as Frost had discovered, someone whom the others did not know. With Christmas so close however, there could be no lingering on the subject.

So, with a shrug, he’d made the offer to return again to Satellite, and perhaps better understand just what it was 'Jack Atlas’ did. It was strange though- the name had seemed to but briefly spark familiarity in the other Guardians, if at least for a short second.

Regardless of what the case was however, he was here again- sitting at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Satellite and watching. Waiting even- looking for Jack Atlas of Satellite to see what he would do.

For this time, he was quiet. This time he used the wind and cold to hide rather than draw attention, hopping along the rooftops and windows and taking great care not to leave his frosted trail. What he found as he followed Jack made sense, if he thought of his words a week or so ago; ’ _your ice isn’t welcome here_ ’.

If he looked now, it made sense. Jack sped through the streets on currents of heat, which would be impossible if there was nothing but cold. More importantly, he spread fire- small fires, hovering near those who had nothing to warm them, nothing to shield them from the growing, frostless chill.  They remained even when he left, glowing for an hour at the minimum; whether that was Jack’s choice, he did not know.

It seemed then that they simply came to a misunderstanding. A grave one- one that had him feeling ill as he watched the faces of a small group of children break into grins at the warmth of an unknown fire. The illness persisted the deeper into Satellite he followed after Jack, it seemed.

The deeper into Satellite they went, the worse it became. As Jack took to higher reaches for travel, Frost himself was careful not to draw attention to himself as he did the same. The further they went, the less Jack seemed to spread his fire. Most kept indoors, and so the fires were sent through windows-

And then they came upon _that_.

He could scarcely believe what he was watching, but what he watched in the end could be prevented, could it not? Before he could move to block the man with the leering grin, the man who stood and cracked his knuckles as he looked to the small girl huddled on the ground however, Jack’s fire came between them.

Except this time, the fire 'beckoned’. A trail of flames pulled the man away, with another flame left to warm the girl in her hiding place. The trail led the man out and out, toward cliffs they had passed before-

And as a final flame hovered just beyond the edge, Frost charged. “NO!” he shouted, ice blasting Jack to the side as he rushed the boy. “ _NOT THIS_!”

“Ngh-!” As Jack skidded against the ground the trail of flames vanished, but all for naught- the man hovered on the edge, feet stumbling against it as he realized where he was, only for gravity to take hold. There would be no saving him now.

Which made it all the worse, in Frost’s opinion.

“Gh- You again!” Jack snarled, fire rolling over his arms as he faced the Guardian. “What the hell is your problem!?”

“My problem?” he repeated, staff at the ready. “You just led a guy off the side of a cliff, and you’re asking me what _MY_ problem is!?”

The fiery one merely growled. “If I had it my way I’d beat the shit out of him instead, but it was this or let him keep going!” he roared, throwing the fire forward. However this time instead of fleeing, Frost dodged the blast, ducking the flames and chasing after the boy.

This time, he wasn’t here to have fun. “YOU JUST MURDERED SOMEONE!” he shouted, staff clacking against fists as their battle took to the air. “That’s not worth anything!”

“It’s worth someone else’s life!” Jack countered. “Or would you like to tell that kid otherwise?” he snapped, successfully landing a punch at Jack’s face only to recoil as the staff between them froze his fingers.

“And you think this is going to help anyone?” Frost warned lowly, swinging the staff and charging again. He was feeling nauseous at the very thought, or so it seemed, and the battle of the air soon tumbled toward the ruined grounds near the center of Satellite. “You think that if anyone starts believing in you, it’ll be with anything but fear!?”

Another punch, and this time as the duo tussled near the edge of a pit, Frost found himself launched back over the side and toward some distant glowing light. “THEN WHAT WOULD YOU DO?” Jack countered, fires pulled from his fist as it connected. “WAIT UNTIL THEY COME BACK _AGAIN_!?” He didn’t know what Frost meant by 'believers’ or anything related to that, but what he did know was that his way _worked_. And it was the only thing he could do that did.

There was no answer, and Jack snorted. Served him right, he thought to himself darkly.  Almost screwing everything over, freezing him like that- it served him right, he told himself.

So then why did he still feel a chill?

With a sudden wave of panic not unlike he’d experienced weeks before he rushed to the edge of the pit, eyes widening at what he saw. Frost, as Jack mentally called him, did not hover and fly back up for good reason or so it seemed. Instead he hung by his staff from a steel outcropping above a glowing pit, and as Jack came to land on it he looked to Frost in confusion. “What are you doing?!” he asked incredulously, receiving no answer. He crouched down, before flipping over to look at Frost from beneath the platform. “Oi!” he shouted. “Answer me!”

“N- Nnnn…” Frost did not so much respond as nod his head somewhat, chin resting against his chest as he somehow managed to grip the staff. The light of the Momentum below bathed him in an eerie glow, and Frost’s pale skin looked almost green beneath it.

Jack snarled, slapping the ice spirit awake. “OI!” he roared, “ _WAKE UP_!”

“Gnh-!” Frost’s eyes fluttered open somewhat, but if anything he looked worse for it. “J- Jack?” he rasped, staring almost suspiciously. “What-” Before the spirit could say anything more a loud 'crack’ echoed through the air, the platform slowly collapsing.

“Tch.” It seemed there was little choice then. “I told you to stay away from Satellite,” he grumbled, grabbing at Frost’s staff and launching himself up toward the edge of the pit. “LISTEN NEXT TIME!”

“Hhhha _a-aAAH-!_ ” The ice spirit’s body swayed with the sudden rush they took, and as Jack kicked off from the platform he pulled them up around it cracked and tumbled downward. Yet despite this, and despite the chill Frost brought, he pulled him upward- and as he collapsed a few feet from the edge of the hole Frost spared him a short glance, almost in wonder.

He still looked sick- like he was going to throw up, Jack thought. “What are you looking at?” he growled, hands shaking as he pulled fire over them for warmth.

Frost, weakened as he felt for reasons that he was certain were not tied to his being, did nothing but shake his head before speaking. “You- You pulled me out of there,” he snorted, pulling himself to his feet as he stared. “I-” He swallowed a wave of bile, looking to Jack. “ _Why_?”

“Why should I need a reason!” Jack snorted. “You’re on this island right now, aren’t you? And you,” he added darkly, “Aren’t _anything_ compared to the scum I deal with.”

They regarded the other in silence for a few seconds after that, but in the end Frost chose to leave. He did not say anything in response to Jack’s words- and when he moved to try and fly it felt as though he would make it so far as a foot before collapsing. Nonetheless he took to the skies and allowed the wind to carry him off.

And in the back of his mind, quietly decided on what he would say and what he would withhold when he returned to meet with the others.


	7. Chapter 7

He didn’t go to the Old Momentum site right away, when Frost left. Perhaps he’d needed a distraction, or perhaps he’d simply wanted nothing to do with the place, but he’d instead retreated to the areas of Satellite closest to Neo Domino and started spreading fire-lights again. It was the most he could do, really- and as much as that irritated him, it was better than nothing.

However the days passed by, and eventually he found boredom and curiosity rising together to lead him toward the pit once again, the spirit floating toward the bridges that spanned the glowing expanse below.

It made him feel uneasy, the Momentum- It made him feel sick for no reason, and yet despite this he felt compelled to stay. The bridge took him into coiling rooms within the building- rooms with all windows blown in, furnishings coated in spider webs with abandoned clothing strewn among them. Though there were no bodies or people, it seemed worse than if there had been- not that he addressed that thought in his mind.

Ruin. That was all there was here, and the further in he moved, the closer the glow of the Momentum came. The bridge above had already been bathed in its light, but as he came to a second, far lower one, the glow was impossible to avoid. This bridge stood perhaps twenty feet above the peak of the churning energy below, with a hole in the center of at least five feet in width. There were flaps hanging from the hole that could close over- a trap door, that much was obvious. What the point of the bridge was  however, was unknown- it seemed so much newer than the things he’d found in the ruins around here, so dangerously close to the Momentum energy. He wondered even, if coming down here while he was alive would have been possible; what harmed him now was so entirely different from ‘then’ that it was hard to tell.

“What on earth…”

The sound of another voice didn’t initially phase him- though he jumped in surprise, turning to face the source, he shrugged it off and merely stared. The two men at the entrance to the bridge after all couldn’t see him, last he had checked- they were muttering among themselves at that moment in fact, so-

“Hey,” the one with yellow-trimmed robes shouted to him, Jack’s eyes widening. “Who are you!”

He froze. “You-” This wasn’t like Frost. Frost had clearly been 'inhuman’, with no heat, with ice, with flight, but in addition to the discomfort already present he found himself backing away from the men before him in shock. “You see-”

“Answer the question,” the red and black cloaked man demanded. “Who are you, and how did you come here!”

Was it fear that sent him backward, or merely the shock of realization? If one were to ask he would answer neither, but then again, there would be none to ask as it was. However it was with wide eyes and a shout cut short that he fell back, boots skidding against the edge of the hole he’d been inspecting seconds before.

And by the time the two cloaked ones came to investigate, Jack had long since fallen into the Momentum below, vanishing entirely from sight.


	8. Chapter 8

If he screamed as he fell no one heard him, not even himself. If he screamed it likely didn’t matter, as all he could recall was brilliant light and colour streaking past him before he collided with dark earth.

After that, there was silence.

Jack groaned, pulling himself up from the ground before looking around dazedly. What he was met with was a distant black void, the darkened and sludged ground below him stretching farther than his eye could see. The sludge for that matter clung, sucking at his boots as he pulled them upward- he regarded it with little more than a growl however, before looking for some way out.

It seemed there was nothing. The sludge gave off a smoke that was neither warm nor cold, and as he attempted to move there was nothing.

“Ngh-!”

Quite suddenly this was the least of his worries.

“What-!” Though they made no sound it seemed as though screams filled the air, the mire around him forming unidentifiable faces. Clawed, skeletal hands reached up to snatch at his ankles and in panic he kicked against them. “Get off!” he shouted hurriedly, the hands crushing under his feet only to reform and grab at them again. “GET OFF!” he cried and the arms pulled at his legs, slowly dragging him under as he roared. “ ** _LET GO-_**!”

“ _STOP!_ ”

A voice thundered through the air, and in an instant the mire was gone, pulled back beneath his being and hardened into flattened ground. As Jack stood, a light came toward him, giving an air of faint familiarity despite the nearly formless shape it took.

While he stared in shock, the light approached, Jack drawing back slightly as it reached out. “ _I didn’t expect visitors,_ ” the voice echoed, chuckling despite Jack’s shock.

“Who-” He swallowed, still recovering from the ordeal of the mire. “Who are you?” he asked, attempting to sound stronger.

Again the voice chuckled, and it seemed to shake its head and sigh at the request. “ _A spirit,_ ” it answered calmly. “ _And you- You should not have come here,_ ” it continued warningly.

As it continued to approach Jack found himself throwing flame coated arms up to his defense, the light drawing back just slightly. “Stay away!” he snapped cautiously watching for what the light would do next. His breathing frantic, the light sighed again, pulling its hand away.

“ _I mean no harm,_ ” it told him calmly. “ _I merely state the truth- though perhaps…_ ” It paused, looking to the fire over Jack’s arms. “ _Perhaps you could return another time,_ ” the light decided. “ _That fire- I feel it call to those trapped here with me, almost like a lifeline- but we cannot leave, not yet,_ ” it warned. “ _Perhaps some other time,_ ” the light murmured. “ _When the Dark Signers are gone…_ ”

Dark- “Dark Signers?” Jack questioned, bringing his arms down and narrowing his eyes. “What are-”

’ ** _GrreEEEEEAAAAAAEEEEGH-!’_**

A bellowing roar echoed through the darkness, and as both Jack and the Light turned in shock, the latter snapped to action. “ _You need to leave here,_ ” it warned, reaching and grabbing the boy’s arm before he had the chance to react. “ _Hurry, before it’s too late!_ ”

“Nh-! WAIT!” he shouted, the ghost’s grip numbing his arm. “WHO-!”

He did not have the time to even ask what was happening, before the light blinded his vision. He felt himself launched upward through the light of the Momentum, and in an instant was being carried by the heat of the energy he had fallen through before.

He hovered there for a few moments. Not long- not with the illness returning as he came to his senses. And as he propelled himself back from the Momentum and out of the pit, he knew he was not alone in those moments. The eyes of the cloaked men watched from below in shock, staring as a figure with fire in his eyes tore away from the scene- however he told himself, ‘pay it no mind’, in the end. Pay it no mind, for what could he do at this time?

If he were to ever return to that place it would not be for a long while, he resolved as he looked back, absently rubbing his still numbed arm. More importantly Jack decided, it would not be until he knew just what it was the spirit had meant when it said to wait for the Dark Signer’s demise.


	9. Chapter 9

It was all a matter of caution, nothing more nothing less. How much of the reasoning Frost was aware of, did not matter.

There were two paths that those chosen by the moon oft took, those whom were marked by the clause of belief. Either they became visible through desire, through the wish to see more of what their powers brought…

Or they became visible through fear.

Pitch Black had been like this, at one time. A monster, the Boogeyman, whose purpose had been to frighten children into doing what was best. As time had passed this use fell short-

And so Pitch Black overstepped his bounds in retaliation.

‘Jack Atlas’ killed. That much, Frost could not hold back. He told them of the fires that brought warmth and smiles to the people of Satellite, yes-

However he also told of the fires that led them astray. In that instant it seemed, the decision had been made. They could not approach Satellite after all, not properly- so then they would not approach Jack Atlas.

Whether or not Frost knew of the reason why, was unknown. It was all a matter of caution.

They did not want to extend their hands to a nightmare in the making only to find that same hand burned away with time.


	10. Chapter 10

When he reappeared again, he saw him coming for once. A speck of blue and white on a grey expanse, and as Frost came to alight on the edge of a worn and unfinished bridge post, Jack was standing upon the one opposite it.

“Come back for more?” he growled, his arms crossed as the ice spirit looked to him.

Frost’s expression was one of an almost tired amusement, as though he’d just escaped from some ordeal and was still recovering. Nonetheless, he held under one of his arms a bundle of sorts- and as he adjusted his grip on it, he smiled. “I’ve decided to make peace,” he instead responded, leaning somewhat on his staff. “I like it here- seems like a fun place.”

Jack growled at those words, fire leaping from his arms. “It’s too cold when you’re around,” he told him. “No one has fun when you’re here- AUHCK-!”

The bundle of cloth was flung at Jack’s face, and as Frost laughed, the blond fumbled through the fabric with a sputtering shout.

“What-! AUGH-!” He scowled, holding the cloth and glaring at the ice spirit before him. “What was that!?”

“Something to help with the cold,” Frost answered with a grin. “A peace offering!”

Peace? Before grumbling about the motion, Jack looked more closely at what he held and found himself staring almost in surprise. It was a coat, a fair bit large for him, and formed of thick red fabric with black on the inside; there were two enormous pockets on the outside, and overall he could have likely used it with a blanket alongside the entirety of team Satisfaction.

And as he hesitantly put it on, he felt a wash of warmth in addition to the constant heat he carried with him. The sleeves were rolled back to his wrists, and the rest of it draped downward near his ankles. It was, put simply, a good coat.

It had been a while since he’d been able to even touch so much as a sheet, let alone some tattered version of this. “Where did you get this,” he found himself muttering, looking back to Frost with suspicion.

“Oh… Somewhere,” the spirit answered, smirking. “I’m the Guardian of _Fun_ , not ‘rules’ you know.”

Wh- “Guardian?” he snorted, shaking his head. “What makes you a 'guardian’ of anything, let alone 'fun’?” he asked, nonetheless finding the title fitting for the one who insisted on bringing a bit of it along.

“The moon of course,” Frost responded, leaning on the staff as he spoke in an almost teasing tone. “Didn’t you listen to him when he brought you back?”

It was not likely that Frost would have expected the response Jack had, but nonetheless he reacted to it rather well. At the mention of the moon, and of his revival, he immediately reverted to the almost enraged state he had been in their first meeting. “How do you know anything about that,” he hissed, narrowing his eyes. Fire again coated his hands, and as with anything else, the coat he wore remained unaffected aside from a few scorch marks along its trim. “I haven’t heard anything for the last three months, and you-!”

“Woah, hang on!” Frost protested, dodging a fired stream of flame as he hopped to another bridge pole. “Three months? You’ve only been around for _three months_?”

The shock in the spirit’s voice was enough for Jack to falter, and as he stared the spirit seemed to laugh incredulously. “Oi,” he muttered lowly. “Why does that matter-”

“Of course it matters!” the spirit protested. “I mean-” He laughed weakly once again, shaking himself. “I thought you were at least 30 or something, that you’d been here since it existed, not-” His voice faltered, and he turned. 30, at least, would have meant Jack had died just before the lights vanished entirely, if he was right about how old Jack looked to have been when he died at least. But three months? “I mean, you’re just a _kid_ ,” he forced out, a growl coming up in response.

“Kid?” Jack shouted, “I’m taller than you, aren’t I!”

There was no answer to that save a continued broken laugh, and as Jack stared the spirit looked toward Satellite. “It’s the Guardian’s job to look after the kids in the world,” he explained quietly, the tone somehow seeming 'wrong’ to Jack. “We protect them from the darkness within it, guided by our centers- with hope, memory, dreams…” The spirit looked back, and gone was the smile he had arrived with, now replaced with a despairing frown. “For hundreds, even _thousands_ of years,” he emphasized, shaking his head. 

Jack seemed to force himself not to pay that comment mind however, merely shaking himself and gesturing back to Satellite. “If that’s so, then where are these Guardians now?” he asked, Frost remaining silent in response. “How can you 'guard’ anything if you’re never here!?”

It was with a pained smile that Frost answered him with, and little more than that. “Guardians don’t kill people, Jack. Not like that,” he added, looking to the bridge platforms. “They spread their center, bringing joy, smiles-” The spirit trailed off, looking back to Jack once again. “When you spread your fire, when you give people _heat_ , it’s like that. North spreads wonder, giving kids toys each year. Tooth guards memories from fallen teeth, saving them for when kids need to look back on better times and leaving them a little something in return. Bunny brings hope for a new start to the year, Sandy brings a peaceful sleep, spreading dreams…” He sighed. “And I bring fun. That’s what we do. That’s what it means, we _don’t_ -!”

Jack snorted. “Toys? Teeth? Until I see them here, helping where it matters, I don’t care what you use to bribe people!”

“It’s not bribery!” Frost snapped back, “I mean- Yea, I thought the same at one point,” he admitted with a quieter tone, “And- …Yea, they lost believers when it stopped, so I guess-” He sighed, clutching his staff. He had no answer in the end.

However, as he jumped from the bridge, he had at least done what he wanted. “Oi-!” Jack shouted, looking over the edge. “Oi, where are you-”

“My ice isn’t welcome here right?” Frost called back, taking to the skies. “And besides, Winter’s over, Jack- anything I make is gonna start melting now!” As the blond below frowned, he merely laughed, sending a short gust of wind toward him. “Don’t worry- I’ll be back at some point,” he decided, grinning as he watched his 'friend’ duck under the breeze. “Just not until the season’s right- How about you try having a bit of fun until then, alright?” he added, laughing when he was met with a stream of fire.

“How about you just don’t come back!”

“HahahaaHAHAH! See you in November, Jack!”

“NO! NO YOU WON’T!” he shouted back, watching the spirit fade away in the distance. “I-”

His voice caught in his throat and he looked back below the bridge, red coat hanging loosely over his body. Hundreds and thousands of years, Frost had said.

Hundreds- Thousands…

He returned to Satellite and resolved to forget all about those words, instead taking advantage of the extra lift his coat seemed to give. In the end, he never did find out where the coat had come from.

Then again, it was the same with most things in Satellite he figured.


	11. Chapter 11

In some ways, he listened to Frost’s words from the start of February. In others not at all, but then that was typical of him really. After that meeting, the moon’s words had echoed in the back of his mind, pounding incessantly a name that he insisted was not his own.

He was Jack _Atlas_ , not ‘Jack of the Lantern’, or 'the Will-o-Wisp’. Jack _Atlas_ , member of- Former member of team Satisfaction he corrected, despite still similar views. Jack _ATLAS_ , born in Satellite, age 14-

15 now, he corrected when the day had passed. He was fifteen, or at least he would have been. And as spring came and passed, his flames slowly lost their use in the daylight hours, and his reason to 'patrol’ the city faded with it. He moved only at night, by the time Summer arrived- starting from the moment the sun began to move downward, until he was certain all who needed the heat had a flame.

Aside from that, he kept to the B.A.D area, watching for those who would need to be led either astray, or to safety. Even then- summer arrived, and he found himself with a sudden increase in spare time. Heat was unwanted- the cool night air largely appreciated. During that time he found himself simply floating over the rooftops and clouds, staring up at the sky in silence. For what else was he meant to do, aside from this?

He couldn’t speak to his friends, couldn’t grab them by the shoulder to say 'I’m here!’- if anything he avoided them, the fact of the matter bringing too much pain when they were in the area. Summer dragged on and on and with it, thoughts such as this-

It was when the heat of August began to fade, and when September brought renewed Autumn winds, that he noticed something was wrong.

Many of those he granted flame to by this point were familiar to him, at least in face. Some, he had seen on the other side of a duel, facing him in opposition as he and his friends began take-over of the area. Others were merely casual duelists, if such a term existed, carrying the disks as a means of self-defense where their physical strength failed them. These were the sorts who inhabited the majority of Satellite, he discovered, and so in the end they made up a large number of those to whom he granted his flame.

It was their condition that drew his suspicions- starting near the edges of the ruinous city injured duelists began to appear, their arms raw and red, much like those who lost to Team Satisfaction almost a year before. The number was small to start- and suddenly there was a spike as the Autumn months progressed, with the day passing without a single break in such an encounter.

Was it an invasion from a new threat, he had asked himself as he scattered the flames in the streets. The fire lasted longer now, having spent the summer practicing in the air above the city. Though hardly perfected it was enough that he could at least canvas the city swiftly enough, and while he still ate and slept despite seemingly existing on a separate plane, the act of spreading the fire was anything but exhausting. He moved swiftly, and felt nothing in consequence-

To see the entire city within an evening was hardly a feat to him now. And the more he saw the more he grew angry- worried, even, until finally he sought out those he so avoided through the entire year.

Finding them safe should have been a relief, he thought. Somehow however, it only made things worse.

This was not Satisfaction as he remembered, he thought as he followed their patrol from the air. This was not Satisfaction at all, he told himself angrily, watching them wander in search of any with a disk. This was not what they had fought for, not at all!

They were hunting in one of the few zones he had yet to find anyone injured within, the announcement among the team bringing a resigned sigh from Crow, and a well hidden frown from Yuusei. They found two stragglers from the team which had formerly run that area of the City; Yuusei defeated one, and the disk exploded as it had in the past.

The second member was a child. Someone younger than even Crow himself.

“Get out of here,” Crow had hissed, and the boy did just that, nodding in panic as he turned and ran. And as Yuusei listened to his friend curse their own actions, as Jack himself stood to listen and frown-

“H-HHAA _AA-AAAAAH_!”

Kiryu found the boy.

“What the hell are you doing!”

“Ng- CROW!?”

The red-head launched himself at his friend and team-leader without hesitation, and as he struggled to hold a grip on Kiryu from behind he looked to the boy on the ground. “What are you waiting for,” he snapped, “RUN!”

There was no arguing from the child, and he did just as told. And as he did so, Crow found himself launched back against a nearby wall, Kiryu turning him on an instant. “Aiding the enemy now?!” he accused, lips twisted into a snarl as he approached. His knuckles cracked and Crow merely looked to him grimly, standing up as his 'friend’ drew near. “What do you think you’re playing at- GHH-GH-!”

“NOT _THIS_ TIME.” None could hear the voice, but all could see the flames as Jack snarled his warning, darting forward to slam his fist on the ground and send a pillar of fire between one and the other. It was enough for Crow to bolt- fire wasn’t a person, fire wasn’t something you could duel, or fight, and with the intensity of the flame it felt almost as though the fire itself demanded he run. Kiryu however, was compelled to stare, the flames coating the shape of a figure almost too familiar before him, almost- “You stay away from him,” Jack hissed lowly, the fires dying as Kiryu shook himself. “And you _stop_ this.”

Regardless of if he was heard or not, Kiryu did not chase after Crow. If anything when the fires faded he seemed shocked, horrified even, to see that the boy was gone. And as Yuusei approached warily from the side, he turned to him with a broken smile. “You… Are you leaving too then?” he asked, half laughing as Yuusei stared. “Just like him!?”

Both Kiryu and Jack were looking to Yuusei for a response. As it came however, Jack found himself turning to the skies with a cold pit growing in his stomach.

“No,” Yuusei had told him. “We’re a team after all, neh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While Jack is mentally 15, he's 'frozen' at 14 in regard to most development (physically AND mentally), so keep this in mind as the series continues!
> 
> Kiryu of course is now 17  
> Crow & Yuusei are still 12 and 13 respectively.


	12. Chapter 12

He did not spend the year idly, and really, there had never been a year that he did. There was always a place in the world for Jack frost- a place where ice grew in patterns of leaves and ribbons, dancing over glass and ground. No- he spent it asking questions, small questions where and when he could.

What was Satellite, before it was what it became? A part of the now ‘Neo-Domino’, of that, he himself was aware. What happened to create it however, he did not know. None of them knew, in fact, when he questioned it. All they knew was that there had been an explosion of massive proportions-

And suddenly, they could not enter the affected area. In time the energy faded of course, but still the sand of dreams could not pass beyond the shoreline. As though halted by some unseen force it merely streaked over an invisible wall, before drifting back to places more easily accessed.

So then what of the children there, he had asked, and from the others he received various responses. From Tooth, lamentation- _'all those memories, lost!_ ’ she had cried, pausing just briefly in her work to give it thought. However her fairies could not fly when they entered the range of Satellite- so lest they plummet to their deaths, they kept away.

’ _You aren’t still goin’ there are yeh,_ ’ came the questioning response from Bunnymund, and he’d merely shrugged and waited for the answer. ’ _I’m tellin’ y', this 'Jack Atlas’ fella’s bad news,_ ’ he had warned. ’ _Another 'Pitch Black’ in th’ makin’, if yah ask me!_ ’ In the end there was no direct answer, but it seemed to him that the rabbit’s gaze lingered on the tunnels to Asia a little longer than typical when the ice spirit took his leave.

In the end October arrived and he found himself seated in the rafters of North’s workshop, pondering the last meeting he’d had with 'Jack Atlas’- if, he thought somewhat darkly, that was truly his name.

“Everyone of you says the same thing about this guy,” he finally admitted aloud as North looked up toward him. “Don’t talk to him, he’ll be 'another Pitch Black’.” Frost looked down from the rafters with an almost suspicious frown, worry visible in his eyes nonetheless. “You had me on the 'Naughty’ list practically the moment we met,” he continued. “What made him skip to the bottom and off the edge?”

North seemed somewhat torn by the question, and it took  a few moments before an answer truly escaped his lips, the man half gesturing and opening his mouth to speak only to catch himself and pause a number of times. “Well, you see… Mnn.” He frowned for a moment, and with a sigh spoke. “Throwing snowballs, freezing water- Is _different_ from what you describe! Even _he_ did not do such things!”

“But he does so much more than just that!” he protested. “I saw him- the fire, the heat- And you should see him, he _cares_ for those people!”

“People which he also leads to the edges of cliffs,” North added in. “Is not something to argue about, Jack; there are better ways-”

“And what if there isn’t? You weren’t _there_ ,” Frost told him, voice straining as he explained. “I mean- He saved my _life_!” While North’s eyebrows raised at the words he remained silent, listening as Frost continued on. “Hah! And here I am asking about the 'naughty list’? I wouldn’t even put him on that.”

“Not on- Now wait one second, Jack Frost! You would put this man on the _Nice_ list?” he asked, likely out of shock more than anything else. “Even with all he does?” There was no answer, and as he rubbed his head North turned back, sighing. “Jack, you must listen- list… It is for children after all and, well, you know in the end, is just expression when I say 'you hold record’, not-”

“He’d still be eligible.”

Perhaps it was the severity of his tone that brought North’s attention back to the ice spirit- or perhaps the words themselves, however as he looked to Frost, the young Guardian did not meet his gaze. “He is still… A _child_?” North questioned with a whisper, the spirit above clutching his staff with narrowed eyes.

“He’s younger than I was when I _died_ ,” he eventually hissed, looking back to North. “And that’s including the time after the moon brought him back.”

It seemed in that instant that North remember what the name had meant, and where the name had come from, and in that instant rather than say anything he’d turned to face the globe in the room with growing shock. “A child,” he murmured, moving quickly to look at the speck on the globe representing Satellite. “Man in Moon has recruited a _child_ , but why-!” As Frost jumped down whatever answer the young Guardian had was cut short, the spirit abruptly finding himself grabbed at the shoulders. “This- this is very different now,” North exclaimed, Frost yelping somewhat as he was pulled over. “If perhaps he were older, even before Moon awoke him, would be dangerous, but now!”

“Errrrr- Now?” Frost asked almost uneasily, before choking as he was clapped on the back.

“Now there is much to do! Go, find more about this 'Jack Atlas’, see how he grows, tell him about all the important things, about Guardians, about Darkness! You said he has fire, right?” he asked, speaking on and on as Frost shook himself. “That he spreads his flames like little 'torches’, 'wisps’, yes?”

The spirit stumbled as he was released, blinking. “Errrr- Yea?”

“Then we will give this other Jack a lantern for this fire!” he decided. “And we will tell the others- show him hope, and dream, and wonder! Give him memories to cherish for all the time he has now, and-”

“And how am I carrying all that to him again?” Frost found himself asking as the man before him rushed too and fro in the workshop.

“Oh-” Frost blinked, North’s curious voice echoing from the closet he’d entered. “How strange- Red coat from old days before workshop is missing, Jack, have you seen-”

North’s question came short as he looked out to where the spirit had been standing, finding nothing but a scattering of snow and ice in his place.

“-It?” He regarded the snow with wide, curious eyes, and in the end he found himself smiling widely. “Hoho _hohhhhh_ … And he still asks when he will be on 'nice list’,” he chuckled, turning back to his work. “Ah, well! Will be loose fit, I suppose.”


	13. Chapter 13

He wouldn’t say he’d ‘gotten over it’ by the time November came and went, but he would have gladly taken the distraction Frost’s presence held at that time.

However Frost did not appear; in fact not only did November pass him by, but December as well almost, with Jack deciding to banish the notion from mind by the third week. He had better things to worry about, or so he told himself. Spreading fire was easy, so he simply made more a habit of 'patrolling’ to make sure the flames were replaced when they went out. With the duration they stayed however, even that was loosing its purpose- even with the winter months, the cycle of patrol and inactivity was becoming increasingly unbalanced. It was almost as unbearable as the summer had been- potentially even more-so.

December 24th arrived, and the distraction came after all. “G-hn!”

Not that he’d expected it, of course.

“You-!”

Frost chuckled from where he sat, perched a few meters above the blond with a snowball in his hand. “Hahahah! And here I thought I’d need two!” he laughed, Jack scowling in response.

“I thought you said 'November’!” he retorted, Frost adjusting the pack on his back with a smirk.

“What, you were actually waiting?”

“Of course not!”

“Then there’s no problem, is there!” the spirit laughed, hopping down to stand by him. “Can’t blame me for being slow- the others wanted to pass a few things along, and it’s an exhausting trip.”

The response was as expected. “What.” The sack was thus dumped before the blond, and as Jack looked to it briefly the somewhat confused frown persisted. “If you’re trying to bribe me, it’s not working!” he warned, Frost rolling his eyes at the comment.

“It’s not bribery,” he remarked casually, “And even if it was what you thought, what would any of the Guardians get out of that? Whether or not you believe they exist, it doesn’t matter- it doesn’t change how you see them; you can see me can’t you?” he added, watching as a number of variant levels of confusion came over Jack’s face.

He didn’t realize that was why he couldn’t be seen after all. And while it seemed he was tempted to question more on this, his stubborn pride prevented it- and after all, the men in the pits had seen him, had they not? Lest he think further on just why that was Jack found himself  moving to sit on the edge of the roof he’d been standing upon, eyeing the sack with a frown. “What’s in it?” he asked in the end, suspicion still evident in his voice.

“Well you’ll have to find out, won’t you?” came the response, Jack’s scowl increasing.

“Tch! It better not attack me or something.”

“Attack-” Frost shook himself. “Why would I bring you something like that!?”

There was no response, and from the sack came two large and brightly wrapped bundles, the brightly clashing colours resulting in a brief look of unimpressed disbelief. Sparing nothing but a short glance to display that to his friend however, he moved to unwrap the larger, 'softer’ one first.

What he found was more than enough to replace the shock with something else. “This is-” His words caught in his throat, and as he slowly pulled up what looked to be a thick blanket of sorts something fell from between the folds- “Mn!”

“Woah there-!” Frost was somewhat quicker to catch, holding out for him what appeared to be a sealed jar of sand after a moment of looking. “Well! This stuff’s Sandy’s,” he noted, Jack taking the jar and looking over the golden sand with a raised eyebrow. “Dream sand! I’d save that for nights you really need it on,” he added with a nod and a grin. “Only a sprinkle, you’ll be out cold!”

“Why would I even need these things at all?” he responded, tone more confused than angered, thankfully. “I don’t even have a place to stay anymore! And isn’t the coat enough? I have fire!” he added, gesturing to the blanket. If he had it his way in fact, the blanket would go to Crow- he had yet to find the redhaired boy since the incident with Kiryu, a fact that was more than mildly worrisome to him. 

Nonetheless Frost responded with a casual shrug, before thoughtfully leaning back on his staff. “Not too different from me then huh?” he asked, smile still on his face. “Flight, element tossing, lack of a roof over the head… What’s next,” he laughed, “Same circumstances of death?” He quickly lost the grin as he said that, as though only then realizing the consequences of his words. “Er- I didn’t mean that to- Uh-”

Jack snorted, but the damage had clearly been done. Stowing the blanket and sand back in the bag with the other parcel he turned. “Whatever,” he growled. “I’m going to check on my fire.”

“Wh- Hey, wait!” Frost cried, grabbing the sack and bolting after the blond. All humor had now been driven from the situation, and as he flew alongside his friend he sighed. “Listen, it’s just hard to forget you’re not-” A pause, and he corrected himself. “I mean most of the others, Guardian or not, are at least over three hundred-”

“It’s still not something to laugh about!” he snapped, stopping as they came near the edge of Satellite. Frost faltered in his flight and did not do anything but stare in silence as Jack snarled at him, face red and eyes glowing redder. “Didn’t you have friends?” he accused, “Family? Or did you just die and start throwing snowballs without care!?”

The ice spirit stiffened, frowning. “Woah- now wait just a _secon_ -”

“I can’t so much as speak to them!” Jack roared, a years worth of pent emotion at last finding the release needed. “They can’t hear me, or even touch me! I’m right HERE!” he cried, “But to them, I’m drowned! Dead! Lost to the sea!” he continued, words slowly cracking as he shook. “No fire will change that,” Jack lamented, turning to face the water. “Not even if I light a pyre in front of their very eyes…”

Drowned.

The word struck Frost with a sensation of cold that brought no comfort as such temperature normally would, the spirit instead thinking back to memories he’d recovered only a few years ago. Drowned in frigid waters, revived and brought back to life-

Was this why he had been brought back without those memories he wondered, looking up at the moon from behind his friend’s back. Was that why he had been given nothing more than a name, left to discover everything else on his own?

As he came up behind Jack, he hesitated, words stuck in his throat and bringing nothing more than a faltered choke of a sound when he tried to speak.“I- I’m _sorry_ ,” he finally forced out, voice low. “I didn’t think it was actually the same, I-” Still fumbling over his words as Jack slowly looked back apprehensively  he came still closer. “What if we found a place?” he asked in the end. “Just a place, somewhere to get away from things you know? I’ve got one,” the spirit added with a shrug. “Might not go there much, but I’ve got one.”

Jack merely snorted. “Hn! Like there’s a place here safe from looters!”

Frost didn’t quite have an answer for that initially, however as he looked to the water again an idea came- and as he jumped forward, Jack choked.

“AH- OI!” he shouted, running to the edge to look down as the ice spirit froze the water to land upon it. “What are you doing!”

“Well think about it!” Frost laughed. “How many people are gonna loot a cliff wall?” As Jack looked down with continued apprehension the spirit snorted, shaking his head. “Come on! You won’t fall in, not this close to shore,” he added.

“Mn-”

“That’s what you’re worried about right? You’ll run out of hot air to catch?”

Jack scowled, instantly on the defensive. “I’m not afraid-!”

A grin was the blond’s taunting response, and as Frost skipped along the side of the rock he laughed. “You sure? Because you’re looking pretty glued to the cliff for someone so used to sending stuff off it!”

That did it. “WHY YOU-!”

“HAHAHAH _aHAHAHAAH_!” In an instant the chase was on, red darting after blue as cold and warm shot around the sides of Satellite’s cliffs. They were rock walls formed by the division from Neo Domino, a harsh cut-off only smoothed out in a few areas by considerable work from other forces. The chase did not last long, but it certainly helped- and as Frost ducked into a crumbled tunnel of sorts, it was even forgotten.

What was thought to be a mere 'cubby’ of sorts, turned out to be a tunnel.

“Woah,” Frost whispered, grinning as he looked back to an equally surprised Jack. “Would you look at that!” he laughed, “Looter-free!”

Jack didn’t answer, merely looking over the cave they’d found with a dumbstruck expression glazing his eyes. Most likely it was the shock of finding something so easily; something in a place he had never bothered to inspect, with a room distant enough from the entrance that the sound of the pounding water waves could scarcely be heard. It wasn’t a large cave of course- in fact Jack and Frost both looked at the end of it now, a somewhat smoothed end of blank and featureless stone meeting them. Yet the more he looked over it, the better the idea seemed- and with the persisting silence, Frost regarded his friend with a smile.

“You know,” he told him, putting the sack back on the ground before Jack, “There’s still another present to unwrap.”

This time Jack didn’t respond with his typical air of annoyance, the blond looking to the bag and merely staring in apparent thought. Slowly, he pulled out what seemed to be a long, nearly flat parcel, opening the paper only to stare in confusion. “A _staff_?” he asked flatly, looking back to Frost.

Frost as well seemed a little put off, but then pointed to the still wrapped end of the hooked pole. “More than that, I’m thinking,” he told him, watching Jack’s attention move to that end as well.

When the gift was fully revealed he found himself unfolding a lantern of red, black, and gold, the end of the delicate structure hanging perfectly in the loop as it locked into place. “What’s this for?” he asked after a moment, staring at it with a strangely suspicious frown. “Why a _lantern_?” he continued, looking to Frost.

His friend shrugged. “I don’t know- and hey, lantern on a stick, that’s not exactly common. Little awkward for lighting,” he added, only to blink as Jack’s inspection of the device led to a flame appearing within it. “ _Woah_ …”

Woah was right. When lit, the lantern displayed a side of the fire that had never been seen, the flame blinking through the layered papers in a multitude of designs. Dragons on the air, with birds of magnificent plumage, all from naught but a paper lantern. Jack was silent as they looked to this light.

However when he left the cave not long after, promising to return in a number of weeks, Frost felt confident that the gift had been well received despite the unfamiliarity with which it had been received.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the current November:
> 
> Kiryu is now 18  
> Yuusei is 14  
> Crow is now 13


	14. Chapter 14

He didn’t use the lantern much, if at all, in the end. Frost may have enjoyed carrying a stick around to conduct ice, but for him, the firelight was best. It was familiar, and uncaged- so as beautiful as the lantern was, he left it gleaming at the entrance of his ‘cave’ instead, constantly repelling what could intrude while standing before a blanket-door. Gathering anything to put behind said blanket wasn’t much of a concern to him really; for the most part, time passed without any difference.

At least for a few days.

Not more than a few days after January first, and vehicles began to appear in Satellite- D-Wheels, run by Security Officers from Neo Domino, tracking down any who violated so much as a minor law and taking them in. He found them the same time he found Crow again- they were chasing him, probably for some minor theft…

So he led them away, watching as the officers looked to each other in confusion, and as Crow continued on his way to where ever it was he lived now. Frankly, he didn’t entirely know what to make of the sudden increase in Security presence; there had always been a few officers after all, with Crow’s single marker testament to that.

D-Wheels and uniforms, guns and batons- this was different, far different however, and he didn’t entirely know if he liked it or not.

Unlike others however, he could act on that questioning. Unlike others, who would have been arrested on the spot…

He was able to follow them. And in the end, officers were human too, were they not? There were good ones, and there were bad ones. There were officers he found, which didn’t care- that was true.

However there were those who did, and those who had regrets, and hopes, and dreams.

In the end he was still the one who found people first, and the officers were limited by human observation.

So then, he decided, why not show them the right way, instead of giving them unexplained cliff-jumpers to constantly worry over?

His fire showed them the worst of the worst, and allowed those who had no place in Satellite the punishment deserved. Security’s Satellite Prison hold was not kind; any held more than a day, or a week in the Facility would soon forget the definition for 'Peace of Mind’.

The lantern staff came into his hands and the flames spread even easier when needed, standing out clearly among any that would already have been placed. It was accepted as 'one of those things’. It was simple. Jack accepted that Security was there to stay. He accepted it, and adapted it, finding himself almost enjoying the strange turn his patrols took. If this was 'his city’ to protect, then were they not here as well? So then assist those deserving, and punish those who did not. It was that simple, wasn’t it?

As it turned out, Kiryu didn’t think so.

The explosion rang through his ears and as he looked across from a building distant the one Kiryu stood upon, it was his old friend’s howling laughter that joined the steady tone. As fires that were not of his making blazed through the building, and as all those caught in the epicenter crumbled to dust. He leaped into action in an instant- his fire was not like the rest, it could guide, lead- Protect, he told himself, doing all he could to at least spare a few of those caught in the destruction. After this, Kiryu could not go unnoticed however. Of that he was certain, and of that all others were certain.

Crow would return, and while Security searched high and lo for Kiryu’s presence, it seemed 'Team Satisfaction’ had gathered again. Kiryu laughed and cried with wide and insane eyes at the sight, his arms pulling a clearly uncomfortable Yuusei and Crow close-

_'We’re not here to fight Security, Kiryu.’_

_'We’re here to help you run.’_

That was what they said, but as Yuusei explained to Crow what he would now try to do, Jack found himself standing there, fists tightened and jaw clenched. Security continued to drive, and now they were speaking with Yuusei, of that he had no doubts. _'The one you’re searching for is me!_ ’ he was announcing now. _'I am the leader of Team Satisfaction!_ ’

“Gh.”

Or at least that was what he would try to say, wasn’t it?

For his fire was a beacon- it called to those he intended for it to call for.

“I warned you,” Jack ground out lowly, leaving the room to seek out the nearest distracted officer. “When you attacked Crow, I _warned_ you,” he hissed, rain falling from above.

Four months, he had lasted, and not even that. The first week of March had come in with a roar of thunder and explosives, and he would not wait to see it end in the same way.

The fire trail lit, and the officer tapped the shoulders of his partner, following after it.

For it was better in the end, that he be locked away, rather than led off the end of a cliff- Right?

The fire lights gleamed but somehow they seemed duller than typical as the officers raided the building, the flames dissipating before the door was even kicked in. And after the arrest, after the fighting, the screams, and the cries…

It seemed that the fire vanished completely.


	15. Chapter 15

It was not merely North of course, who fashioned the gifts given to Jack in the end- and after all, why would it have been, when the gift giving was seen as such an exception? North’s presents were for children worldwide, not some ‘long dead spirit’.

Discovering how long-dead the boy wasn’t, in the end, changed many of their minds. The Sandman for his part, had always been more neutral on the topic; it helped that Frost hadn’t thought to question him of course, what with the being’s inability to enter Satellite at all, but as it seemed, he did not mind. Instead, he had smiled in apparent understanding, and listened as he always did.

Bunnymund was of course adamant in his ways for the most part- child or not, Jack had killed, seemingly without remorse; if he was not a force of fear now, he would be later, but Toothiana on the other hand leaped at North’s intended plan to form the gift of a lantern for the boy. Lanterns and light were an incredibly important part of the lands surrounding her palace after all- so her assistance could surely not be ignored, right?

Perhaps it was jealousy, or perhaps a grudging admittance that there could be worth in proving some amount of faith to 'Jack Atlas’, but by the time Tooth and North both had set aside enough time to properly form this lantern of theirs, he himself was snatching the others away to his warrens.

’ _Alright,_ ’ he’d decided, Frost half playing along as he slid out through the tunnels. ’ _You’re the one who knows about 'im! So what’s he really inteh? Because I’m willin’ tah bet it’s not lanterns!_ ’

The fact of the matter was that he didn’t know. He knew what kids in 'his area’ liked- he knew what made things fun in the cold of winter, what made kids laugh, but in Satellite it was different. In Satellite, his snow didn’t bring fun, no matter how much he willed it, and with the ill feeling he experienced in the city’s boundaries he wasn’t particularly up to checking around.

He knew a few things, however, and that was this- ’ _He eats, he sleeps- I don’t know where, or why,_ ’ he’d added, though the consuming trait of fire lent clues to it, ’ _But he does._ ’

This was evidently all the bunny needed to know, and with a nod to the Sandman they both went to work. Frost didn’t see what it was they made- not until the gifts were unwrapped, but he supposed in the end it made sense.

Perhaps it was not jealousy, or even a show of faith. Perhaps it was the understanding that someone else could burrow the response to such events as murder- the gift of sand, and a blanket thick both pointed toward this. They both brought the question of how much more of Satellite they knew, and what he himself was missing.

The gifts were delivered, and with that he had carried back news of their initial responses. He wouldn’t know what good the blanket and sand turned out to be of course- he would have to check in later, perhaps at the end of winter, instead. Of the lantern he was able to share at least a confirmed 'positive’ however, resulting in a hearty laugh from North as he gave a competitive nod to Bunnymund.

’ _Aaaaah, we’ll see who makes the bettah gift!_ ’ the bunny had retorted, with Tooth merely adding her own two cents with a panicked ' _it’s not a contest!’_.

The second of February came and went, and six weeks of winter were ensured as the Groundhog glanced to his shadow and ducked back down. Six weeks of winter, and so Frost’s visit to Jack was postponed just a little longer, with the spirit of ice soaring on winds while he yet had the chance to reach Satellite. It seemed somehow colder, despite the winter months ending- yet as he approached, finding Jack with ease, he failed to notice this.

“Hey!” he shouted, the blond’s back toward him as he sat at the edge of a small tower outcropping. “How’s-”

“Go away.”

The words were sharp, and swift, and for a moment Frost almost stumbled in surprise. “What?” he asked, only to jump back into the air as Jack turned on him.

“I SAID **_LEAVE_**!” he roared, fire briefly enveloping him entirely. And in the rage witnessed before him Frost found himself unwilling to argue against it, looking to the boy for a brief moment in evident fear as the heat threatened to defrost what cool ice coated his staff.

So he left.

Looking down from the air with wide and terrified eyes, wondering just what had happened in the short few months he was gone…

And watching from a distance as the blond returned to his silent vigil, determinedly seated as far from Security’s Detention Facility as possible.


	16. Chapter 16

He still had his cards, after all this time. After all, where else would they have gone? They were with him when he died.

So they came back with him as well.

However there was no one to duel him, no one to play with him, not any more. Perhaps months ago he would have considered showing the cards to Frost, if at least to get him interested in ‘his’ kind of fun, but for now he could barely feel the will to even look at them.

He held the cards in his hands for only a moment, and in the end left the deck in his cave with anything else he’d gathered in the months that had passed. Cup ramen, spare cards- he had forced himself not to search for a duel disk, but in the end there was no force required now.

The will to duel had left him at the start of March, leaving a calm, quiet, and entirely lethargic entry into April.

He did not spread his flames any more. If anything, he was as far from Satellite as possible for him, flying up into the skies as long as the heat currents allowed before hovering among the clouds and looking out to the distant lands and waters beyond. 

It had been the right thing, hadn’t it? He asked himself this repeatedly as he hovered in the air, red coat hanging beneath him as he ground his teeth. It was him or so many more, it was him, or wait for the man to snap again and bring more chaos and casualty!

Kiryu’s arrest was for the best, he repeated to himself, and yet for all that the 'best’ was meant to bring, he could not bring himself to agree wholeheartedly. When the summer months arrived, so did the time that fire was not required- in the end, it was easy to 'forget’. In the end, when he returned to his small cavernous home again at the end of the summer months, it was all too easy to keep the fire to himself.

If such pain was what it brought, surely it would not be missed. Such was what he told himself as he looked to the deck of cards before him again, one in particular staring up from the paper.

Red Daemon’s Dragon was a card he found while he and the others still lived with Martha, a card he treasured completely. He had found it not long before meeting Kiryu in fact, when he and Yuusei and Crow had resolved to find some other way to look after themselves. They couldn’t simply become burdens to Martha- they couldn’t!

The day he found the card, the birthmark on his arm glowed _brilliantly_.

And the day that he died it vanished entirely, leaving the card as a shadowed reminder of what had and could have been despite never knowing just what the mark had meant.

He opened the jar of sand or the first time that evening, after much debate. A pinch, Frost had said, that was all it took. Jack didn’t know what he’d meant by that, and the jar lid was clasped shut as he gripped the sand between his fingers, watching a few grains spill out between them. “Weird sand,” he muttered aloud, narrowing his eyes as he brought his hand close. Nothing seemed to be happening. So- “What n-”

His own breath scattered the sand, and his shock sent his head forward just slightly, the tiny cloud blinding his eyes only a moment. Only a moment was enough- a moment was all it took, and as he rapidly blinked to try and banish the sand Jack’s body fell forward onto the cool stone, eyelids closing over entirely.

A sleep would be appreciated, really. Even without the spreading flames, it was needed.

Such stress and despair could only be experienced so long without pause after all- and after all, the potency of the Sandman’s sand could never be completely destroyed if one needed it.


	17. Chapter 17

In his dreams, despite all that happened, things were better. It was a dream of impossibility, however not to the extent of depressing realization, wherein the culmination of things that could never be would result in a worse feeling than he had entered the slumber yet. Nor was it an obvious impossibility, for the dream involved him to the extent that what he saw was accepted as a loose reality, even if questioned.

In his dreams, he wasn’t alive- or at least, he wasn’t human, as had been for two years now- but that did not matter.

In his dreams, his friends could see him again. In his dreams, Satellite’s wasteland and water no longer held them back, and the things they had dreamed of as small children were real. In his dreams, his friends drove D-Wheels…

And although he himself never would, a fact that he knew in his heart, he flew alongside them nonetheless. As dragons arose to join them in flight, with naught but honest smiles on their faces and laughter and chatter on the air.

In his dreams, he existed once again.

When he awoke, he knew that wasn’t the case, but somehow felt better for it. He did not feel the spark to send the flames through the city as before, but he did feel the need to do at least one thing; he could not avoid his friends forever.

If he did, he would only come to regret it when it was too late.


	18. Chapter 18

To find his friends now that he looked for them was harder than he thought. It took a number of hours searching before he could locate what ruined building now acted as Yuusei’s home, and when he did, the thought of what he would do when he saw them again struck him once more.

Yuusei was sleeping when he arrived, albeit difficultly. He had found for himself a jacket in the time between the present moment and the arrest as it seemed, but that was hardly enough to give warmth in what was now late October yet again. If the thought of waking up his friend, or being seen occurred to him, it wouldn’t have changed his reasoning in making a fire to keep the young man warm however- and as it was, the only difference was that ‘shivering’ lessened and the continued twitches of a nightmare persisted.

There was plenty of sand in the jar, wasn’t there, he’d thought to himself as he watched his friend blankly. More than enough sand to spare some for his friends- and after all, they thought him gone, did they not?

With Kiryu’s arrest, four had become two, not 'three’, as Jack knew. With Kiryu’s arrest, they didn’t realize what happened behind the scenes of it all- they saw only what they were limited to.

Jack left the room, but he was quick to return, the jar safely carried in one of his coat’s enormous pockets.And as he landed back inside Yuusei’s twitching slumber persisted, his invisible friend quite deliberately taking a light pinch before sprinkling it over the eyes. That was what was needed, right? That was all? So long as he did that-

As he closed the lid Jack stepped back in shock, the sands which clouded rising up to shape itself into the familiar shape of a dragon. It rose further as the sleep calmed, and as a d-wheel formed itself behind it, Jack slowly moved to tap the nose of the calmly flying dragon.

In an instant, the beast sang with life. ’ _KerrrrRROOOOOaAAAAAANNNN!_ ’ A song like cry broke the air, audible only to himself and the entities in the dream. The dragon soared around him, and around the room, and the D-wheel followed behind it- it would be nothing compared to the actual dream of course. How could it, they were different people! What was within his mind would not be Yuusei’s, what was in Yuusei’s would not be his. The dragon and bike raced around him, but they remained in the room and in the end he had one more to find. Nonetheless, he left with a smile-

And in the end, finding Crow didn’t take long at all. For Crow, unlike Yuusei was not asleep- and though the pain was still there, he’d found his own way to curb it.

In the end, he had never been far from Jack’s home, taking residence in the buildings along the road at Daedalus Bridge.

“Alright everyone, come on,” he could hear Crow saying, helping to cover the children with a blanket. “Time to get some sleep.” Jack flew in and stopped not too far from where this occurred, watching the group almost in curiosity as he clutched his jar of sand. Beneath the roof he stood upon, the voices continued to filter out- “We’ve got a big day tomorrow yea?” he was telling them, grinning despite all that was around them. “Pearson’s gonna show you how disks are put together right?”

There were cheers and shouts of agreement in response to this, and as Crow took his own place for sleep, and following that little else was said- ' _good night_ ,’ they told each other. _'have a good sleep_.’

It was about then that, from the window nearby, Jack quietly sprinkled the bit of sand he’d had over Crow’s head. As predicted he was out in an instant, eyes fluttering shut as a sanded set of blackbirds flew up to tackle each other in some sort of childish play-fight, Jack smirking at the sight before mutterings at the side of the room stole his attention.

“It’s cold,” one of the girls murmured, shivering as she huddled next to the other. Before Jack could act on the words, the other children nodded, grouping in the blanket without question.

“It’s colder than last year,” another of the children said.

“There’s no fire this time,” a third added, Jack growing pale at the comment.

Their words continued, and the more he heard the more his eyes widened. ' _i’m scared,_ ’ the youngest said, despite whispered responses that 'crow-niichan’ would protect them. ' _it’s dark, and i’m_ scared _,_ ’ she persisted, and the others merely huddled closer.

' _Crow-niichan’s cold too- he gave us his blanket_ ,’ one of the boys warned But that didn’t matter, Jack realized, looking from Crow to the shivering children. Because it was the last day of October, winter was coming, and now-

“They noticed,” he whispered with a start, shaking his head. As though he’d forgotten that the fires were not taken for granted- that he’d done so much more than merely guide the damned to their death, led judgement to its proper target. He’d given heat, a will to _live_ , a will to-

A set of flames appeared within the room, on above Crow and another above the children. And as he looked back at the expressions of elation and relief from the young ones at the sight of the fire he found himself smirking, decision made and resolved. This fire had a reason, whether believed in or not- the heat had a purpose, the protection a reason to exist, and he would continue to spread that flame for as long as needed in that case!

He wouldn’t forget that, he told himself firmly. He would never again forget that.

The flames began to reappear one by one, and to those who saw them, it seemed as though they had never been so bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By this point, Jack is 'technically' 16
> 
> Kiryu is about to turn 19  
> Yuusei is now 15  
> Crow is 14


	19. Chapter 19

Though Frost again failed to return for some time, it did not seem to do much to his attitude in the long run. Though he still made an effort not to visit his friends too much- for after all, regardless of attachment, they could not see him- he kept himself busy spreading the flames of his fire and alternatively practicing other uses for it. Could he perhaps fly under its heat? Could the lantern conduct and channel the flame with greater concentration than his own hands? They were questions that in the end he couldn’t quite answer on his own, with some days leading Jack to leave the lantern standing in his cavern and others coming where he brought it with, focusing his efforts in sending the fire with a swing.

He had long since cemented this routine by the time Frost returned in the February of the next year, and when Frost did, Jack regarded him not with hostility as had cautiously been expected, but instead what seemed to almost be amusement. “You finally showed up?” he half asked, Frost looking somewhat surprised at the comment.

With a moment of thought the spirit shrugged, giving a short laugh as he answered. “I figured you needed some space,” he told his friend, Jack looking away in response.

“…Right,” he said after a bit of time, recalling the last time they’d met.

“But let’s not think about that right?” Frost added, walking over with a grin. “You sound better after all- look better too,” he continued, ignoring the snort he received in response. “And hey, it’s been about a year since I saw anything here, so-” He jumped as Jack hopped off the side of the cliff they stood on, hurriedly following after. “Hey, wait!”

“You said you wanted to see the place didn’t you?”

“Was kinda looking for an answer first, you know?”

“This counts!”

“Wh-” Shock aside, Frost found himself laughing darting after his friend as their path took them to the cave. “Since when did you know how to have fun?” he asked with a smirk, coming into the cave as Jack turned back.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

There was little response to the warning tone, and as Frost held the humored stare he looked into the cave they’d entered. “Nothing, nothing! I see the lantern’s getting use,” he added somewhat dryly, the staff in question standing rigidly between them and the ‘door’. “Blanket too,” Frost added, Jack merely shrugging as he took the pole from the ground and moved past the blanket.

“It keeps the cold out,” he stated in defense, leaning against the wall of the cavern as Frost looked around the room.

The room in question was lit largely by the lantern Jack now held, albeit with an intensity that didn’t pose much threat to Frost’s own well-being. He did in fact have some sort of 'bed’- what was probably the remains of a couch cushion to be more precise- beside which he’d set up a small table of sorts to keep everything from the stone ground. Dry as the room was, there were things that Jack didn’t want to take chances with. The jar of sand was the first thing he noticed, and he reacted to it with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t use much sand, huh?” he asked, Jack shrugging at the comment.

“I decided to save it for when I needed it,” he admitted, Frost deciding not to address the fact that Jack had said 'when’ rather than 'if’.

Instead he nodded, looking to what else was on the table. “Didn’t take you for a card player,” he laughed, moving to pick the deck up. Though Jack flinched initially when his friend did so, he calmed quickly nonetheless, watching as the spirit flipped through the cards curiously. “Uh-” Frost blinked. “Never seen cards like this…”

“Wh-” That certainly caught Jack off guard. “Never!?” he repeated, Frost merely shrugging as he put it back on the table. “How can you have never seen Duel Monsters cards!?”

“Is that what it’s called?” he asked with a laugh. “I’ve heard that once or twice, but I didn’t really pay attention!”

Jack looked as though he’d been splashed in the face with cold water. “But- But everyone’s heard of duel monsters! Everyone plays it!”

“Errrr. Sorry?” Typically when he threw a snowball people started throwing more of them, rather than playing cards…

Either way, he found himself snatched by the staff in an instant. “We need to find you some cards!” Jack insisted, taking very little care in how he was dragging his friend behind him. “I can’t believe you’ve never even heard of them!”

“WH-” For once, he didn’t really have much choice in the matter, and in an instant they were off the edge of the cave and back in the air above Satellite. “Wha-!”

“Maybe we can duel later too!” he added with a shout, still dragging Frost behind him as he half ran, half flew.

“What!?”

In the end they would become entirely distracted by something else in the city, and forget almost completely about gathering cards.

However in the end, it was also the thought that counted the most.


	20. Chapter 20

Was it a mistake, entering the subway to search for the cards? The tunnels, he had thought, would be a potential goldmine, for after all who knew what fell in there to never be reclaimed.

However there were more ways to enter than from the top, and as Frost came to land behind Jack he found the blond staring with wide eyes at the home that seemed to have been formed on the ruinous train platform. “That’s-” As Jack’s words caught in his throat, Frost came up beside him, looking to the oblivious redheaded child before them. “That’s the same boy I first-”

“One of the kids you helped, huh?” Frost asked, a light smile on his face. Jack did not take his eyes away from the boy, merely nodding. He seemed happier here, he thought- looking through a small pile of well worn cards that he’d gathered, pulling out one in particular and smiling at it fondly. The two continued to watch for some time, and eventually, Frost spoke again. “…It’s hard sometimes, not being believed in,” he admitted quietly.

“How do you change that?” Jack found himself asking.

Frost merely turned, a sad smile on his face. “You don’t- not really,” he answered. “You just keep doing what feels right, and in the end, eventually-”

The sound of an engine cut the conversation short, and as they peered down the tunnel it was Jack who reacted first, immediately jumping up and back through the hole in the tunnel roof.

“Wh-” Frost turned, kicking back briefly as a bike of sorts pulled in for a teen in a blue jacket to greet the red-head at the side. “Jack, wait!” he shouted, entirely unheard by those in the tunnel. Briefly glancing back at those before him, and at the somewhat crude machine, he moved to follow his friend into the night sky. “Jack!” he shouted again, darting after him. “Hey, wait up!”

Jack did not listen, not really- however he did eventually stop, coming to stand on the roof of some former business tower with a pained scowl.

As Frost landed there beside him, he found his initial words ‘stuck’, the things he intended to say feeling almost 'wrong’. “Hey-” he found himself saying instead, resisting the urge to demand answers about his friend’s sudden flight. “Weren’t we looking for cards?” As Jack looked back, expression clearly showing that he wasn’t in the mood, he pressed on nonetheless. “It’s probably been ages since you had a game with anyone right?” he added. “I might not know anything about it, but if it’s as fun as you make it out to be, I bet I’ll enjoy it!” the spirit laughed.

Jack merely looked away. “You don’t even know what the cards mean,” he muttered, his friend merely shrugging.

“So then I’ll learn! The white ones looked pretty cool- could have a deck of those right-”

He cut himself short as Jack reeled on him incredulously. “Of synchros!? That’s not even legal! Synchros go in the extra deck!” he protested seriously. “And even then, you wouldn’t just have those!” As Frost continued to stare in mild shock and amusement, the blond continued on. “You use normal monsters for the deck! The brown ones!”

“Yea they looked kinda monster-y…”

“And make sure your monsters have effects that work together! And make sure you have enough under level five, or you won’t be able to summon them!” Jack persisted, Frost nodding in a manner most would have recognized as half-mocking by this point. “You definitely want synchros, but for synchros, you need tuner monsters too- and the level of synchro is the same as the tuner and another monster put together! And-”

“So the green and purple ones, those aren’t important right?”

“OF COURSE THEY’RE IMPORTANT!” Jack roared, his friend finally unable to hold back a wave of laughter. “O-Oiii! What’s so funny!” he protested, Frost merely laughing louder.

“I’ve just never seen you this worked up about things!” he said with a grin, shaking his head. “It’s great!”

“It’s important!”

“It’s hilarious! HahAH _AHHAAHAH_! You’ve even got fires sprouting!” Frost added, only to freeze as Jack blinked.

“Fire?” he asked, following the spirit’s gaze to some glow not far from the building. It took only a moment of staring and Jack paled, his answer bringing a dark and unwanted chill to Frost’s spine. “That’s not mine,” he told him, the duo sharing looks of horror only for a moment.

Only a moment and little more, and they both bolted for the scene of the fire. Never realizing as they did so that someone with red hair supported by a headband had already beaten them.

The fear of it, however, was there in an instant. The closer they came to the fire the more familiar Jack found it, and as they came near he found himself darting in without speaking. Frost, behind him, paused initially, the fires leaping high and threatening to heat him even from the current distance. However in the end he created as large a blast of ice as possible and followed after, even while the snow he formed disintegrated on contact with the flame.

“JACK!” he shouted, searching for the blond in panic. “JACK! HEY!”

“GET OUT!” Jack was shouting not far from him, though not to Frost- instead he was using his flames to hold back the others as best he could, shouting to those currently caught in the wreckage. “ _GET OUT_!” he roared louder, Frost rushing to join him.

“Jack, they won’t hear you!” he protested, forcing a wave of cool ice against the fire to help nonetheless. “Come on!”

The humans in the fire were talking at the moment, and he could only catch so much of it- 'the cards,’ the trapped man was whispering to the red-headed teen with a rasping voice. 'take the cards-!’

The cards? As Frost looked to Jack, he noted the intense worry- even fear- that he regarded the the redhead with, the fires pushing against them with considerable force. “We can’t stay here!” Frost persisted, Jack refusing to listen. “Dammit-” He clenched his teeth, and mustering what strength he had left made one final blast of wind- the teen had been told to leave, but there was no path.

And so he would create one.

“Cover me!” Frost shouted, Jack immediately nodding in agreement as he realized what the spirit was doing. His fires continued to struggle against the ones around them, shielding Crow from the blaze as Frost slammed his staff against the ground. “NOW!” he roared, and the winds blasted forward, wood crumbling and threatening to fall in its wake. “ ** _GO_**!”

There was a visible reaction to the sudden appearance of a path from Crow, but there was no time to truly address it- The teen gave one final look to the motionless figure trapped by wreckage, but rather than bolting through immediately, grabbed at the device near them both- a D-Wheel, a bike, either way an oddity in Satellite now twice encountered Jack thought but briefly, and though he and Frost both struggled now against the flames, Crow would not leave without it. He pushed it along the safe route the duo forged without his knowledge, deck safely stowed at his side and D-Wheel moving with all his strength.

He made it out just as the path collapsed, Jack and Frost both unable to hold it any further as they fled. And as Frost struggled to regain his strength and breath he watched as Jack moved for Crow, attempting to help the teen as he collapsed only for his hand to pass through him.

So he instead sat at his side, silent. Watching to make sure that he continued to breathe, to make sure he at least recovered from the ordeal.

He left in the end, Frost- he couldn’t recover his strength while in Satellite, not entirely, and so he left, telling Jack as much from behind the blond and leaving him in silence. Jack looked to the unconscious teen with a different gaze than he had the boy in the tunnels, from any he had seen before in fact. He looked to him with worry and fear and perhaps even longing for a time long passed, with the first two emotions only now recognizably the same ones which had prompted Jack to flee the tunnels in the first place.

This was someone from when he was alive, Frost realized as he left, Jack’s words from long before echoing in the back of his mind. A friend from the time he lived.

Though Frost returned to Satellite soon after the fire, he did not tell Jack what he was doing, in the end. Instead, he chose to keep an eye on others in the city, before taking his leave once again. He had something to do, he decided in the end.

Something that needed to be done before the end of the year came.


	21. Chapter 21

In the aftermath of the fire, there wasn’t much that could be done, to say the least. With the fire came the end to whatever work and hope Crow and the children had- they were back to square one, and then some. However somehow just as always he recovered, and if anything Jack found himself subtly distracting one or two of the many officers who now chased the teen in his raids on Satellite Security’s deck hold.

It was when Crow attempted to visit Kiryu that he was taken in for the last of his markers.

It was likely the news of just what had happened to their friend that prevented him from resisting.

Nothing major of course, in confining Crow- he escaped before they could get him to the decided cell in fact, fleeing on the ‘Blackbird’ to return to the kids he so cared for. If he knew there was a name for the flames that assisted in it, he did not appear to acknowledge it.

He wasn’t sure if that was for the best or not, really. Kiryu was gone now, and gone for good, and Jack wondered for some time if that had been his own doing. The arrival of summer was almost a blessing in fact, his mind distracted by the recent events. The warmer months were spent floating in the air or searching for cards between his occasional patrol through the 'B.A.D.’ area for any potential 'cliff jumpers’- the main area of Satellite was one thing.

B.A.D. however, was the land no officer was willing to tread upon. If they did, they did not last long. Jack didn’t know why this was- to him, it seemed as if they simply turned tail and ran, regardless of if his flames hovered before them. As though another force held them in its grasp, pulling them from prying eyes.

Or perhaps from something greater than that. He did not know what prompted him to re-enter the Old Momentum chamber- after all he was no closer to discovering what 'Dark Signers’ were, or what their ties to the spirits in the base happened to be, yet there he was once again. This time however, he took care to remain unseen, keeping to the shadows and keeping his fire out. He avoided the greater halls and kept close to the narrow ones, watching as a woman in black and green passed before rushing to another.

Their eyes were black, he noticed as he observed those in the building. And their bodies made him think of the waters in the deep, of the cold and the dead. There was something unnatural- dark, even- about them. What that was however, he couldn’t be sure.

With three having passed into another room, he moved in the opposite direction however, intent on searching what he could without their knowledge. They could see him, that he knew after all- however he did not know what, aside from his fists, could harm them, and somehow he had the strangest feeling that his fists would not be enough. His mistake in all this?

“ _Jack?_ ”

Well, how could he have possibly known?

“It can’t be- Jack?!”

He knew that voice.

He knew it, and as he turned he was met with a yet distant figure in black and blue, whites of the eyes stained black amid a marker bleeding red. “Kiryu?” he found himself asking, his own face blanching with terror as his former friend came closer.

“It’s you!” he laughed, naught but honest relief and joy in his tone. “You were dead though,” he cried, “This is incredible!” Jack took a step back and Kiryu continued to approach, unaware of the shock that rendered his 'friend’ silent. “I still have someone left,” Kiryu seemed to say, reaching out with his hands. “The others, they betrayed me, but _you_! You’re still here! _You’re_ -”

He continued to step back, shaking his head as Kiryu approached, but the words did not stop and the man drew ever closer. Before Kiryu’s hands could come to his shoulders, his back pressed against the wall, and only one thing came to mind- “N-nHMN-!”

The fires coated his arms and created a 'shield’ of sorts, not that it was needed. With an inhuman hiss Kiryu pulled his arms back, and after a short instant of looking them over, he regarded the fire with confused shock. “Fire?” he whispered, looking to it as Jack slowly moved along the wall, never taking his eyes off of the revived criminal. Something seemed to click in Kiryu’s mind, the flames roaring both in the present and in the memory of an instant when things began to degrade, his shock growing dark as he clenched his fists. “Heheheh… HahA _HAHAHAHA… HAHAHHAHA_ \- You **_TRAITOR_** ,” he roared, Jack bolting as his back found a stairway door. The fires behind him dissipated and Kiryu chased after him, snarling curses for all in his vicinity to hear. “YOU BASTARD! IT WAS YOU!” he screeched, Jack fleeing as quick as he could. “ _YOU CAUSED IT ALL!_ ”

“Hng-FF-” He struggled to fly and run up the stairs, coming to an upper window only for a cold hand to wrap around his ankle. “NGH-! Let me go!” he shouted, clawing at the window as he was pulled back. 

“ _I’ll kill you_ ,” his attacker hissed, “I’ll kill you a second time you fucking _BASTARD_ -”

“LET ME… _GO_!” he screamed, throwing flames back and taking to the air of the central chamber the instant he felt the grip lessen.

The piercing cry Kiryu gave as the flames connected rang through his ears, and as he flew up and out from the crater he could hear it devolve into cackling laughter and a chilling warning. “ _YOU BETTER RUN_ ,” he laughed the voice chilling him completely. “I’m going to find you! I’ll find you and everyone else you hear?!” Jack hovered only a moment as the voice rang behind him, and if not for the mass of heated wind beneath him he could have well fallen with the shock of Kiryu’s next words. “ _You can’t kill me this time_ ,” he cackled. “ _ **You can’t kill a 'Dark Signer’**!_ ”

He left the crater and didn’t look back, only stopping when he reached his home in the cliffs. And when he did, blanket door shut to the world, he clutched the lantern close and let it blaze, letting the light fill the room as he struggled to calm his racing heart. And in his terror, his eyes drifted to the jar of gold at the side.

That night, one more pinch of dust clouded his vision- if at least to forget the nightmare which had numbed his ankle so completely to the bone.


	22. Chapter 22

Unlike the first dream he had with the sand, he awoke from the next feeling sour and almost terrified despite the pleasantness of the sleep itself. The dream had been a dream of times long past, of times when he had been alive. Except there were traits of the future entwined within- of a Satellite united, of a bridge formed, and of a peace that could ne'er be obtained.

He awoke with the lantern clenched with a deathgrip in his hands, breathing haggardly as his eyes fluttered open. The fire was still burning, still illuminating the room, but as he stepped outside the sun had long since risen in the distance. A new day, a new month… Time moved on, and he continued on with it.

And soon enough, October 31st was over once again.

He spread his flames through the city half on auto-pilot, ignorant to the whispers that now developed in his wake. ‘there they are,’ some would mutter with relief. 'the fires are back- quick now, lets warm up!’ What they believed in however did not quite have a name, or a title that they could quite place. So while they believed in the flames, he remained invisible, unseen to the mortal eye.

The fire spread with ease, and soon enough he was finished again. He sat at the edge of a building far distant from the Old Momentum site, and as had been typical for some time, found himself staring off to the city across the water in silence. A number of days passed like this- the fires would be spread and he’d find some place to be alone. Pah!

Not that that was ever difficult, right?

December 24th came, and he wasn’t alone anymore.

“Surprise!” came the greeting as he landed before his friend, Jack staring almost owlishly at the spirit. “I’m a little late, but I got something for you!”

“O- Oiii, what kind of greeting is that,” he started almost lowly in response, Frost merely smirking.

“The kind you’ll appreciate, I hope!” As Jack stared, the ice spirit pulled something out from his pocket, grinning. “Ta-daaaah!”

“Ah-” He choked. “A deck!?”

Frost’s grin seemed to only brighten, and as he pulled the deck back he nodded a head toward where Jack’s home was. “Took a bit to find enough of all those cards you mentioned, but I figured I’d give it a shot… So how about it,” he asked his friend, “Ready to have a bit of fun?”

Jack’s response was all he needed to know that his plan had at last worked. “Hah! You’re on!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> October again and-
> 
> Kiryu died at age 19  
> Jack is 'technically' 17 now  
> Crow is now 15  
> Yuusei is 16


	23. Chapter 23

There was only so much they could do with cards in the end he supposed. “It’s not bad,” Frost would say in the end, “But it’s a little boring for my tastes.”

“Boring!?” Jack gawked, his cards regathered into a deck as the duo sat by the entrance to his cavern home. “It’s not boring!” he protested, stowing the deck safely away in his pocket as he scowled. “You’d say different if we had duel disks,” he insisted. “It’s different without- you just don’t understand!”

Yet Frost took this with a grain of salt it seemed, shrugging as he took off from the tunnel for his friend to follow. “If you say so,” he decided with a laugh, lantern chasing frost-covered staff as they darted along the cliff walls. “Maybe one day I should show you how to ice skate in return!”

“Ice skate!?” Jack retorted incredulously, “It’d melt under my feet! Besides, who needs skating when you can fly?”

“Well, I GUESS that’s true,” Frost countered casually. “Then again, you probably wouldn’t catch up with me…”

“Why you-!”

Frost dodged under his friend’s arm and darted away, the duo charging through the area in a race as he laughed. “Haha _HAHAHAHA_! What, you don’t think a cold front comes quicker?”

“Fire moves the fastest!” Jack insisted, responded to with a laugh.

Their path took them over the bridge, and as Frost soared off the edge of it and some distance away he grinned. “So you say, but I’m still winning!” he laughed, only to drop the grin as Jack skidded to a stop.

“Oi oiii!” he protested, looking over the edge of the bridge. “Foul! I call foul!” he insisted, Frost raising an eyebrow at the antics.

“Foul? I’m ten feet from solid ground!”

“Doesn’t matter!” the blond persisted. “You’re cheating!”

“Cheating!? But I-” As Frost prepared to argue further he looked over his friend’s only barely hidden panic, the expression masked by seeming anger. The spirit sighed, and quickly returned to the bridge. “Alright, alright- have it your way,” he decided.

The race did not continue after that, but Frost at least stayed for a little while longer. Back inside the tunnel which led to Jack’s home, the ice spirit would watch as the blond came out from the blanket covered room with a plastic covered cup, peeling it away as he sat near his lantern.

“So… What are those anyway?” Frost found himself asking, the plastic cover discarded to the side as Jack pulled back the paper lid.

“Mn? You mean you don’t know what ramen is either!?” he responded in shock.

Frost hurriedly brought his hands up in mock defense, laughing. “Hey, my area’s normally near the poles, or in Europe! You can’t blame me for not knowing!”

“But it’s the greatest food ever!” Jack persisted, only to stare. “Oiii, you do eat… Right?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes,” he answered vaguely. “Doesn’t answer how you’re cooking that though, unless you’re strangely fond of ice foods,” the spirit added with a smirk, briefly forming something similar to a sno-cone in his hands.

“Blech! You can keep your ice!” the blond grumbled. “And it’s easy, watch! First you pour the water in,” he started, taking the bottle of water he’d kept with the cups and pouring some in, “Then you put the lid back over…” The cup was moved about a foot before him, and quite abruptly was lit aflame. “And then I heat it!” Jack laughed, Frost jumping back briefly with a start.

“Ah- That’s not gonna melt it or something?”

“It’s only for two minutes.”

“The cup doesn’t look that sturdy, just saying.”

“It’s sturdy enough!” he protested. “And it’s good food,” he added somewhat quieter, Frost eyeing him with a somewhat bewildered stare.

Food in Satellite was probably scarce enough as it was, wasn’t it, without Jack taking these cups. “How come you never leave?” he finally asked, Jack looking up with a start.

“Wh- What!?”

“Not for good I mean,” his friend added. “Just- why not visit the city, or some other place- you can’t tell me it’s because you’re ‘busy’ either,” he continued dryly, “I know that’s not true.”

Jack was silent for only a short span of time, banishing his fire to pick up the ramen before him. “No one else is coming here, right?” he asked, pulling out a set of worn chopsticks to start on his ramen. “So what if something happened while I was gone?”

It seemed as though that was it- though Frost wasn’t sure. Rather than question him on it however he nodded, looking out to the water beyond the cave entrance before Jack spoke again.

“Hey, Frost,” he started, the spirit in question snapping his attention back to the blond. “How old are you?”

“Real age, or 'looks’ age?” he asked in response, Jack merely snorting.

“Your real age, what else!?”

Frost leaned back against the stone, pondering that for a moment. “Mnnn… Counting when I was alive, I’ve passed the 325 marker- not long before I hit 350 then!” he added with a laugh, only for it to fade as he looked to Jack.

The blond picked at his noodles with far less zeal than likely normal, not looking away from the still steaming water. “Nothing about us is going to change for a long time then, is it?”

He regarded Jack with silence, and sitting as he was, he seemed almost smaller, despite the already existing knowledge that the blond surpassed him in height by at least an inch. In the end he looked back to the water, forcing himself to answer.

“No,” he told him. “Not even after that.”


	24. Chapter 24

Frost left in the end of course- he always did, and he always came back, such was expected by now. Jack didn’t mind; Satellite wasn’t ‘Frost’s place’ in the end, and aside from that he wasn’t sure how much ice he could take.

So for the time being, it was business as usual. He spread the flames and kept them warm, making certain that no corner of Satellite above the surface of the ground was untouched. Bringing his rounds to an end at the area of Daedalus bridge was the most typical habit he had toward this; he would finish up, go to his home, have a cup of ramen, and go back out. That was typical.

However today, he finished the rounds at a different building altogether, memories from a less than pleasant evening coming back to gnaw at his conscience. The ashen ruins of the fire he and Frost had helped save Crow from still remained to this day, despite the fragile appearance it now took. The warehouse gave a sensation not unlike the pits of the Old Momentum- a chill which both pulled and pushed at his being, and one which he was quick to avoid.

At least for a short time.

Before January’s end, he found himself entering the blackened 'tomb’, skipping over rubble and charred wood as he went. As expected of course, there was little there- a charred pile at the focus of the flame, bits of white barely visible from within it, along with a mess of fine ash and dust.

However that was not all. Near to the pile lay a melted mess of glass and metal, which he only faintly recognized. “A lantern?” he murmured, looking to the small heap. It was difficult to tell, but somehow the theory felt right. Evidently, he’d found what started the fire then-

If it was a lantern though, shouldn’t everyone have gotten out? Or at the very least doused the flame, he thought briefly. Maybe the grease and oils in the warehouse had been too close- maybe, but that did not explain why there had been such a death that evening. Perhaps Pearson had simply been attempting to get the D-Wheel out, and his deck?

Something did not seem 'right’ here, he found himself thinking as he left the warehouse. Not right at all.

It wasn’t until his journey back home that he was distracted from these thoughts, and even then it did not last long. The engine of the blackbird roared as it shot past him, and in response he found himself following. To his mild surprise, Crow would park not far from Sector Security’s main facility.

Or perhaps that wasn’t surprising at all. Crow did not enter of course- he wasn’t so foolish as to attempt a heist without preparing before hand. However as he watched his friend plot and scheme over various entrances and escapes he found himself thinking-

He could probably get in there easily, and not get caught. And after all, Security had been on the island when the fire happened- they had arrived in the end to question those still present, chasing after those who ran. So what if they knew something that Crow didn’t then, that _he_ didn’t?

Unlike Crow, he tended to be a bit more impulsive about his decisions.

The spirit darted into the building with ease when the door opened for an officer to leave, and though the sensation of passing through a person was always unpleasant it worked in his favor nonetheless. He could travel these halls unnoticed at least, of that he was certain.

Now if only he could figure out just where information on the case even _was_ -

’ _The Chief Inspector requested we bring evidence from the March case up,_ ’ someone stated not far from him, the blond turning to listen. ’ _Box 'A’ I think he said._ ’

“Right,” the officer being spoken to responded.

“Don’t open it.”

“Yes sir!” the officer added, albeit with the tone of someone who felt they weren’t being taken seriously. 'Evidence’ was all Jack needed to be prompted to follow really- again he followed through when the doors were opened, holding back a shudder and looking about the room they eventually came to when he could. It was relatively large, and additionally quite dark to say the least- the moment he was truly alone he found himself forming a small light in his hand with the strong aura of repulsion emanating from its flame, a precautionary move to make certain no one saw boxes 'moving on their own’.

The labels at least were relatively specific- a precise date on each box, with an additional title on top varying from the mention of a case in one of Satellite’s 'zones’, or the name of a specific criminal- in some cases victim.

Such was the case with the one he was looking for, or so it seemed. 'Pearson’, the title read, and the date beneath it matched perfectly with the evening of the fire. The box was light however- there were only a few folders inside, texts dotted with terms he’d never heard of and photos of the scene he’d looked at plenty of times before. The only thing that stood out was a card. A single synchro monster, 'Blood Mephisto’ it was called. The papers claimed it could cause real damage, forces strong enough to send a man flying a full three meters, easily!

There was no way to tell who owned this card. However as he looked to the papers, he wondered-

Crow had been handed a deck of cards, but not a duel disk. No- that had been reclaimed, stolen back from the very building he stood within, and repaired with hours of work by the duelist. If Pearson had handed him a deck of cards, and the disk had remained behind, that meant it hadn’t been in the D-Wheel; after all, it was a hybrid, meant to sit within the machine when not in use.

There was only one reason for otherwise.

Pearson dueled someone that evening- the Bloody Mephisto had been summoned, likely by the opponent. The force then launched Pearson back, and…

It wasn’t as though he came to the conclusion immediately of course. The box had been put back, and he’d left the way he’d come. He went home, he slept, and he thought. For what else did he have to do? Other than spreading fires, and searching for criminals, there was nothing he could do after all, winter or no- Jack Frost did not remain longer than a few days when he came.

It was only a matter of time before he came to this conclusion.

Which was why, when he heard Crow ponder to himself what could have been on an evening soon after, he 'answered’- with a little light above the D-Wheel, followed by another, and another, trailing out as Crow followed not through some 'allure’ of flame but from a curiosity for the fires which the children he cared for so often spoke of. Fires of protection, warmth- guidance even, as a few of them would claim, having either found Crow in this way or even simply gotten lost and followed the fire back. The fire trailed up along Daedalus bridge, and just a few feet away from the edge along what would have been its path.

“Neo-Domino?” he murmured, clearly confused. Jack grimaced as his friend stared, narrowing his eyes. It wasn’t much, yes, but it was all he could do! How was he supposed to do more than this? He couldn’t _shape_ the fire, only-

Was that true?

If he willed it after all it formed a wall did it not? Or a pyre, a tower of flames taller than anything. There was no limit to how many flames he held here, right?

The fire split- and the divided flames moved swiftly, one over the other to form a crude shape, Jack gritting his teeth with focus. It seemed so simple in his mind really, he’d forgotten all about the part where he was typically just tying the flames to people. Nonetheless, as the fires formed Crow narrowed his eyes, half whispering his evident shock and confusion.

“What the hell,” he started, only to blink as the flames ceased. “ 'B’?” he asked, shaking his head. “What the hell is this, a ghost message?!”

Jack snorted. “Hmn! That’s one way to put it,” he grumbled, holding the fire in place.

'Ghost message’ seemed to be just what Crow needed however. “B-” He froze. “Bolger.” Aha.

“Right!” Jack grinned, the fire fading completely. “He was there too, go ask him about it! You have a d-wheel, so do it!”

Though he couldn’t hear him, it seemed Crow came to that very conclusion, a small frown appearing on his face. “Guess there was more to it, wasn’t there,” he murmured, the unseen spirit beside him groaning.

“That’s right, now just go check!”

“Mn _nn_.” Crow didn’t react at all like someone preparing to plan a Satellite escape unfortunately, which was fairly unfortunate given that Jack himself knew enough of the place by this point that he could have listed at least five- instead the boy looked toward the shack building where the children slept, biting his lip. “Shit,” he muttered aloud, “What the hell do I do…”

Oh. “Er.” He’d forgotten about that. Crow had kids to look after; he didn’t have time to-

Wait.

Jack’s grin grew the more he set the flames, an idea forming as he set a second trail of fire which backtracked into Satellite. And though Crow initially regarded it with confusion, a slight 'tug’ in the fire was enough to get him on his bike to chase after it. After all, Jack thought to himself as he smirked and led his friend toward the calmer areas of the ruined city; the safest route out of Satellite would need a D-Wheel.

And there was only one other person outside Security with one of those, let alone one to whom Crow could entrust with his request.


	25. Chapter 25

The engine purred with quiet repetition as he drove out from the trash chute and into the streets of Neo Domino. It had, in all honesty, been a few months since Crow had asked this favor of him- his friend had approached expressing worry and anxiety over issues concerning a fire he’d been involved in, claiming that one of those who had been present had since taken residence in Neo Domino. He was somewhat skeptical of course- after all, how could anyone of Satellite manage such a thing?

However he trusted Crow. So he agreed, or at least agreed to try. What escape route there could possibly be that would buy him the time needed to start a search was unknown however- at least, until his friends piped up themselves. There was one way, they would admit. Only one.

It would take a lot of time, and a lot of planning for it to work- as the bike was now, there was no time, and though Crow’s could have stood a chance, Crow _needed_ his. That bike was the thing that made it possible for him to dart in and out of the B.A.D. area with supplies for the kids he cared for, what made it possible to stand up against a crowd that surpassed what he could take down by hand.

So time would pass, and the time would come. With minor complications in the form of a persistent officer and a time limit, he would make it through, taking whatever measures were needed to remain hidden as he started to search for any hint of ‘Bolger’s presence.

He was not alone however. Nor had he been alone since the moment he left the subway tunnels he and his friends took residence within. It had made the travel rockier than it could have been, however Yuusei had failed to notice despite the grimaces of his invisible passenger.

As they came out into the city, this passenger’s focus was momentarily lost. Jack still gripped the point on the bike’s backrest tightly of course, half standing, half sitting upon it, but as they exited the tunnels their eyes were assaulted by lights of all kinds. Lights of the sorts that Satellite had never been able to see so closely, lights of very nearly any colour imaginable. He gripped his lantern post with his free hand and looked about in wonder for a few moments, and beneath him Yuusei did the same. It was like nothing they had ever seen before.

However they could not stay, he told himself, and more importantly, they had a place to search for. It would be easier now to simply follow the bike as he had during Yuusei’s initial test drives than it would be to keep his grip on the bike itself after all; the heat radiated from the momentum that powered it would be more than enough, and as he lightly pushed off from the bike he had no reason to doubt this.

It hadn’t occurred to him that the number of vehicles and lights and overall well heated buildings in Neo Domino would increase the amount of heat present; to find the effort needed to stay aloft entirely overshot was the tragic consequence really. “NGh-!” A little 'jump’ sent him soaring through the air, shouting in shock as he flew high above. “H-HAHHHHH-!” Passing sign after sign, kicking off buildings lest he crash into them, he found himself rather swiftly caught in a maze of pillars, roads, buildings, street lamps-

“SHIT!” he cursed, attempting to locate Yuusei below. He found himself seeking still higher ground as he scowled, only to look on the scene beneath him in mild surprise. Now that he was above the streets- above the crazed and invasive maze of lights and holograms, he could see before him a web of the city, of all the roads and vehicles beneath him. Of the many buildings there were, and then some.

From here, he could possibly even spot the building he and Yuusei searched for, he realized, moving to sit upon a near-by balcony ledge. Perhaps this was for the best then, he thought with a smirk. If anything this made things even faster! He thought these things and with the lantern at his side laughed, a somewhat menacing grin on his face.

All the while, he failed to realize that he was being _watched_.


	26. Chapter 26

He hadn’t been up there long really; barely ten minutes, even managing to pin where Yuusei likely was. What he was looking for wasn’t so much a place at the moment in fact; rather a sense of where everything _was_. If he could recall what building went where after all, then a picture would be enough for him to find it right? That was what he figured at least.

“WoaaaAH!” Jack jumped as a young boy’s voice cut through the air, nearly falling off the ledge of the balcony before turning. “How’d you even  _get_ up here!”

“N-NNH!?” The boy before him wasn’t much younger than he was, or rather, than he looked. His hair hung a little past his shoulders, and he wore fairly nice looking sleep clothes, a fact that very nearly caught him off guard as much as the voice. However more important was the look of mixed worry, shock, and amazement on the boy’s face.

He was looking directly at him. “Hey who are you anyways?” the boy asked, blinking curiously.

Jack shook himself, frowning. “Ah- I could say the same!” he protested. “How can you see me!?”

The boy blinked. “Uh- I can? Oh! And I’m Rua!” he added with a grin, “What about you?”

Still he failed to answer, holding his lantern staff tight in one hand as he looked to ‘Rua’ suspiciously. “Mn… No one can see me,” he stated flatly. “Or even hear me, actually.”

“Heh? Well I can hear you pretty clear- Oh!” The boy quite suddenly beamed, remembering something. “So you’re like the spirits Ruka sees then!” he realized. “Cool!!”

“Spirits?!” Wha- “Who’s Ruka!?”

“Hhhaaaahhhh…” As the question was asked, a yawn came over the air, the boys both turning as a nearly identically appearing child came onto the balcony as well. Much like her brother, her hair hung just past shoulder length, bedclothes only different in colour. Rubbing her eyes, she initially frowned and turned to her brother. “Rua, it’s too late to be talking to people,” she scolded, her brother immediately protesting.

“Ah-! But he just came up here, and he’s a spirit right?”

Before Jack could angrily protest with anything, the girl shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she murmured. “He doesn’t feel like any of the duel spirits I’ve seen…”

“I’m not a-!” Eh- wait. “D-Duel spirits?” he asked. “As in duel monsters!?”

“Yea! Ruka sees the spirits from cards,” Rua answered, “It’s cool! Hey-” He grinned. “Does that mean you play too!?”

Jack didn’t answer, his focus set on the twin sister. “O-Oii, how can you see things like that any way!?” he asked, finding himself quite unable to protest the existence of such spirits at all.

Ruka blinked. “Ah- I don’t know,” she admitted. “I always thought it was because of my birthmark…” Birthmark? As Jack frowned, the girl moved to lift her sleeve. “You feel a little like it,” she added calmly, holding her arm forward for the blond to inspect. “It’s a very warm energy, just like this.”

“Mn- A claw…” Or at least it seemed to be one, he supposed; lined in an all too familiar red, sitting over the girl’s arm, it sat entirely innocent as Jack looked it over.

Coming over himself, Rua grinned further. “That’s right! Ruka’s had it for a long time, for as long as I can remember- and when I was little, I got one too!” he added with a laugh rolling his own sleeve. “It’s really cool! I didn’t think it’d mean I could see anything no one else could though,” he added, “Ta-dah!”

“Ah- It probably isn’t-” Jack froze as he looked to the mark before him, words caught in his throat. He had been about to say that it probably had nothing to do with it. That it was a fluke, not related at all. However as he looked to Rua’s arm he found himself almost lost, the grip on his lantern going quite limp as he stared. “It…”

“Eh- H-Hey, mister,” Rua started with a swallow, “Are you okay?”

There was no answer as he continued to stare, not for a few moments despite the audible protests of the boy and the worried stare from the girl. There was nothing he _could_ answer with in fact, as he looked to the mark with horrified eyes. He supposed if it had been him, he would have claimed the mark was superior to the 'claw’ as well, really.

For the mark he looked upon at this moment was none other than the mark of the Wings which he had lost five years ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being summer, Yuusei is 17 now!  
> The twins, being born June 20, are 10.


	27. Chapter 27

It took a bit before he spoke, but he spoke nonetheless, if only for the sake of acknowledging the first two people aside from Jack Frost and the ‘Dark Signers’ who could even hear his voice. Perhaps this sentiment was made even stronger by the marks on the arms of the twins he looked to right now.

He wasn’t sure, to be honest. Perhaps that didn’t matter.

“I used to have that mark,” he admitted, continuing before Rua could voice the shock that immediately came over his face and that of his sister’s as well. “A long time ago- before I died,” he finished, Rua choking somewhat.

“Th- S- So then you really are a spirit!?” he squeaked, his sister frowning.

“Rua!” she scolded, before looking back to the blond. “…I’m sorry,” she told him honestly. “But- who are you then?” she asked.

“What are you?!” Rua added, flinching as Jack’s gaze snapped toward him in response. “Hih-!”

Looking back to the floor of the balcony again, he answered nonetheless. “My name is Jack Atlas!” he started, initially sounding at least halfway confident. “…and I don’t know what I am,” he admitted, the words sounding hollow in his ears as the confidence shattered. “I can make fires,” the blond continued, demonstrating as much over his finger tips. “And there are others like me,” he went on, “But that’s all I know.” The words from the moon hovered in his ears in protest and he pushed it from mind, grip on the lantern pole tightening as he did so. And before him, the twins thought to themselves in relative silence.

“Who are the others?” Rua asked soon enough, the duo both staring with varying levels of worry over their faces. “You know their names, right?”

Jack crossed his arms, slouching somewhat as he answered. “Tch!” He snorted. “I’ve met one of them- a 'Guardian’,” he continued with rolled eyes. “Jack Frost!”

“Heeehh! You have the same name-”

Ruka frowned. “Rua, it’s not as uncommon as you think…”

“But I don’t know anyone named Jack!”

“That’s because this is Japan,” she continued almost dryly, sighing as she went quiet for a moment again. “Ah- But… I think I’ve heard of that name,” she admitted. “Jack Frost- it was in the fairytale book you read a few days ago,” the girl told her brother, Rua blinking curiously.

“Hehh, really?” As his sister nodded, he appeared to disappear into thought, before laughing. “Hah! Cool! So then, you’re like that?” he asked, turning to Jack with a grin. “Like Santa, and the Sandman!?”

“MN!? Those two!?” As Jack snarled the twins jumped, staring in momentary shock. “Don’t group me with those guys!”

“EH!? But I thought you only met Jack Frost!”

“That’s right!”

“But then why does it matter!?” Rua continued, the blond merely scowling.

“Just don’t!”

“H- _Hihhh_ -!”

“Neh, Jack,” Ruka asked calmly, carefully steering the subject away from the matter of 'others like him’. “Earlier- When you asked about Duel monsters…”

Her brother smiled. “Ah- that’s right! Do you duel too?” Rua asked eagerly. “You had the wings before me, so you can’t have been like this long!” he added, quite unfortunately not realizing how tactless his words were. “You had to have dueled!” the boy persisted. “Right?”

Though Jack had initially deepened his scowl at the further reminder of his death he paused, the thought of dueling a far more welcome topic. “Mn- That’s right,” he answered, reaching into one of the large side pockets on his jacket as he sat more comfortably on the balcony rail. “With these cards!” he continued proudly. He pulled out the deck and as he did so stiffened, a strange 'spark’ seeming to rush through his arm. In the same instant, the twins found themselves looking to their arms curiously, staring at the marks with frowns on their faces despite the lack of change in their appearance.

However as he drew the deck out, that changed. As he pulled it out in his hands the marks glowed, a brilliant and warm red that reminded him all too much of his own fire, a light that intensified and heated further as he held the deck before them. It was a warmth all too familiar to him-

And as the heat washed over his being, he found himself looking to the 'Red Daemons Dragon’ card on the deck with almost despairing eyes.

“Warm,” Ruka murmured as the glow from the marks died down, Rua merely looking from it to the card with wide eyes.

“Woahhhhhh- That was so cool!” he laughed, looking to Jack. “Did you do that!?”

Eh- “Of course not!” There was an uneasy laugh as Jack snarled, however as he looked back to the card the rage faded quickly. “When I found this card,” he found himself muttering, pulling it up from the pile, “That was when the wings appeared on my arm- with the same light as just now,” the blond continued with an uncharacteristically quiet tone. The twins had no answer to that, merely staring- it allowed him to look to Red Daemons in silence, a thousand thoughts running through his mind with varying levels of relevance and clarity with the chief of them potentially being the most painful.

How long since he had dueled? Really dueled, with a disk? It had been nice to play with Frost. No, it had been incredible, to finally duel someone again, but Frost didn’t understand the importance of the card-battle. He didn’t have the heart for it.

Which was why he held the card out toward Rua, looking up as the boy gaped. “You’re the one with the wings now,” he rasped, hand starting to shake. “If I kept him,” he continued weakly, “Red Daemon’s Dragon would never see the duel field again.”

“W-Wuaaah- it’s so powerful,” Rua choked, his sister looking to Jack seriously as the card was taken.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked, Rua rushing inside to put the card somewhere safe. “It’s been with you for a long time, right?”

Jack merely nodded, putting the rest of the deck back in his pocket before standing. “I need to leave,” he decided, preparing to take off to skies. “I didn’t come alone,” he started, turning back as Rua came back out.

“Awww, you’re leaving…”

“Rua,” his sister murmured with a frown, “He can’t just stay.”

The boy frowned. “I was going to ask if he could come to our tournament…”

Eh- “T-Tournament?”

As the twins both nodded, Rua grinned. “Yea! Me and Ruka are the 'Twin Monarchs of Duel!’ or something like that- we even get to ride a D-Wheel in the arena!” he said with a grin.

“Rua does most of the dueling,” Ruka admitted. “A lot of it is for show I think, but there’s a tournament in the Fall, and we’re due to face the champion,” she explained.

“It’s gonna be great!” Hoh, a tournament…

Jack grinned, unable to keep a laugh from escaping him. “Hah! I won’t be here that long,” he assured them, the grin persisting nonetheless. “But if I am, I’ll definitely come! Make sure to show me a powerful duel!” he finished, falling back from the balcony.

“AHH-!” Though they initially reacted in shock, the grins on their faces as he soared past them was worth it, and as he flew away Rua shouted and waved- “We’ll see you!” he cheered confidently, Jack merely snorting.

The only way that could possibly happen was if he was still there in three months after all, and as he attempted to relocate Yuusei he was unable to keep from smiling despite that.

At least until he successfully found him. “Ngh- Yuusei!”

He darted down but it was all too late, the cuffs clicked around his wrists as he was forced into a van- he could not help him if he tried now, the blond landing on the van as it began to take off. The ones who had come after him since before the tunnels had at last caught up; perhaps if he hadn’t been so distracted, he would have been able to lure them away. Either way, the fact remained.

The van took off for the facility, and while he sat upon the roof, he wondered how unlikely it was now, that they would still be here in the Fall.


	28. Chapter 28

He never realized that he was not alone in this. That he was not alone when he was dragged into the nigh-empty courtroom, allowed to do nothing but watch as he was sentenced for the crime of trespassing into Neo Domino with marking and jail time.

He was not alone when the machines held him back against the chair, that the searing pain of the laser marking his face would not allow him to move and cause more problems than he already had. ‘1 Month in Jail’ they said, and they dragged him away to be transported. '1 Month’, they supposedly decided.

That would not last long.

Yuusei was not alone as the mark was scanned and his information logged. He was not alone as the warden growled and referred to him by prison code, an invisible presence snarling curses from his side.

He was not alone in his cell either, though technically speaking that would have been the case regardless, same as on the duel field later on. And he was not alone as he listened to the story of Jin Himuro, one of many duelists who had embarrassingly lost to the 'Twin Monarchs’ of Neo Domino.

Perhaps it was for the best however, that the interrogation chamber and rooms beyond were closed off before his tag-along could follow after. Before the fires of an old friend’s rage could threaten to send the prison’s keepers over the edges of tower bridges, or before he could even realize what was deserving of such a thing.

When Yuusei was dragged to interrogation, Jack was unable to follow for some reason- and thus, there was much that he did not witness before the 'new sentence’ was formed. So he had instead waited near the cell which he shared with Yanagi.

Waiting, and soon staring in horrified rage as his friend was thrown back in barely conscious. ’ _A-AA-CHAN_!’

The old man would manage to rouse him back to the 'living world’ so to speak, Yuusei resting on the bottom bunk for a seat. It wasn’t until he was sure of this that Yanagi questioned just what had happened however, the old man’s worry only surpassed by the yet invisible spirit beside him.

“Ngh…” His body ached and burned all over, and almost idly he found himself rubbing the same arm that the warden had grabbed almost constantly to inspect. ’ _Now why ever would they do that…_ ’ Yanagi would respond when he mentioned this, another in the room slowly growing pale in the meantime.

Truthfully, he wasn’t entirely sure.

“They seemed to be looking for something,” he murmured quietly. “A birthmark of sorts; something they expected to appear that didn’t,” he continued. No matter how many times the machine had surged around him.

Yanagi crossed his legs and arms both as he sat in thought, humming briefly under his breath. “Mnnn, a birthmark that appears without reason… I might just have heard such a story!” he laughed, Jack merely continuing to stare in mute shock from the side of the room. “The tale of the 'Signers’! That’s it- warriors of the 'Crimson Dragon’!”

While Jack continued to choke over his shock, Yuusei merely stared. “The Crimson Dragon?” he asked, Yanagi nodding.

“That’s right- it’s an old story, one I heard on my travels many years ago in Peru,” he explained, briefly seeming to drift off into thoughts of fantasy at the memory. “They came from the People of the Stars- a tribe that lived beyond the reach of mortal man, protected by a legendary dragon god! There were five from this tribe who would be chosen by this dragon, five marked men and women to act as his warriors, his 'Signers’. These people would each fight for him with a great dragon of their own at their side, whose form would change shape and size over time…” As the old man trailed off he quite abruptly jumped, looking to Yuusei curiously. “It could even have been a card!” he realized, eyes wide. “Maybe-”

“A dragon like 'Stardust Dragon’?” Yuusei asked, Jack swallowing his unease from the side.

Yanagi beamed. “Stardust you say? It wouldn’t surprise me- Quick quick, if I could see-”

Yuusei shook his head. “They took my deck and D-Wheel when I was arrested,” he admitted. “Sorry.”

“That’s quite alright,” Yanagi sighed. “It can’t be helped! But I’ve never heard of a monster by that name,” he continued, “And I’ve seen a _lot_ of monsters! you keep that card safe when it comes back,” the elder warned carefully, “If it really is what _they_ seem to think…”

Jack could listen no longer, and the moment he could, he fled. When the door was opened for the evening check over he slipped out immediately, unable to continue listening to the conversations inside. There was nothing wrong with being a Signer, he tried to tell himself as he flew through the tower in thought. He had just finished spending some time talking to two of them in fact, so what was the problem!?

Perhaps it was the fact that he was jealous. That his friend would soon join those with marks, dragon still in hand, for whatever purpose this 'Crimson Dragon’ had in mind. Yet somehow, he couldn’t seem to accept that.

Somehow even his own faults did not seem to be the cause of this unease. And after all if the Signers- if that was indeed the term- could see him, as Rua and Ruka had proven, and the 'Dark Signers’ as well, it begged an all too worrying thought.

If the Signers were chosen to fight something after all, and the Dark Signers as much a threat as he thought, then what would happen, he wondered, when one of both sides met in battle.

And more importantly, perhaps…

Could such a battle even be avoided?

With Jack vanished into the tower, lost in his thoughts, he did not see the next piece of the puzzling matters to come next morning, when inmates who had been temporarily locked away in cells located lower in the tower were gathered together. He was not there when, as they were inspected by none other than the Director, all were sent back to the cells save Yuusei.

He was not there as the Director whispered to him what a unique card it was they found in his possession, a powerfully rare monster. He was not there when the man continued with a warning to the prisoner, a warning of what could happen when 'lines’ such as those between Satellite and Neo Domino were crossed. _'People could get hurt,_ ’ Rex Godwin warned, Yuusei all too easily catching the hint.

“You leave them out of this,” he responded lowly, looking to Godwin with cold eyes.

And Godwin, ever calm, merely smiled as he walked to pass the prisoner back to the warden. “An extension may be necessary,” he told them casually, before vanishing down the hall. “I may need him in a few months…”

Jack was not there when this all occurred, nor did he return until Yuusei had already been thrown back into his cage.

However it would take a fool to believe that they would only be there for a month, when officers arrived to lead Yuusei to a long-term cell.


	29. Chapter 29

Yuusei’s imprisonment was far too long, and most everyone in the prison was aware of this. Those who cared, shook their heads and muttered curses, those who didn’t did nothing at all at best, and laughed at his fate at worst. Even then, this did not last long; for what good was it to taunt a prisoner with no reaction.

He pondered helping him to escape. Numerous times in fact, but in the end he gripped his lantern pole and did nothing. If he were to lure Yuusei away, he would become too unaware of himself to so much as open a door. If he were to distract the officers, Yuusei would become concerned for them more than himself, given the sudden change in attitude and presence of flames around them. There was no way to win.

Perhaps he’d have felt at least slightly better if he didn’t think leading the warden off the side of a bridge would become more of an issue than anything else. “Idiot,” he growled darkly as he sat on the edge of one such walkway, looking below as a duel was prepared. It was a duel originally intended for Jin Himuro himself, having supposedly been caught with a weapon on his person. Himuro of course, had claimed otherwise-

And Yuusei had stood up for him, eventually arguing his way into the duel itself. He got lucky in a sense- originally the thought was that he had lost by ‘default’, making his argument null and void.

However the inmates of the prison had been moved by his words at Himuro’s defense, and his demands against the warden Takasu. So they had gathered together all the cards they’d managed to keep with them, forming for Yuusei a deck. He was lucky- he had the chance to win.

“HRRAAAA _aaAAAAAGHHHHN-!_ ”

“HAhaHAHAAAAA!”

Jack ground his teeth as the duel progressed, and as sparks flicked off his friend’s body he had enough. Fire wouldn’t do anything here of course- of that he had been certain from the start, but this time he would not stand idle!

The spirit turned from the bridge and tore off through the halls, searching for what could possibly be fueling the devices around their ankles. Anything, he told himself desperately, anything-

“Dammit, it’s around here somewhere,” he heard someone hiss, Jack turning as a vaguely familiar voice came from behind. As he moved aside a young man with a small mark on his face passed, eyes narrowed in focus as he searched for a door. “Where the hell is that generator,” he muttered to himself, Jack staring as Yuusei’s cellmate continued the hunt.

Aoyama was supposed to be gone. He had been preparing for himself and Yuusei- and even Yuusei’s friends in the prison- an escape, a tunnel that would lead out to his friends. They would jam the marker signals and break out, and would be long gone by the time any were aware of their disappearance.

The duel was to happen during that escape.

Yet instead, Aoyama was here. “Come on…”

Looking for the same thing he was. “Heh!” Jack smirked, and as they came to a hall he recognized, a flame would appear not far from Aoyama’s position. “Alright then,” he decided, the young man frowning suspiciously but following nonetheless. “Lets see what you can do!”

Takasu’s pleas and cries would be all too satisfying in the end, even if Aoyama’s act had led to his furthered incarceration.

Watching as the Director appeared to call for Yuusei’s release however, was even better- regardless of what difficulties lay ahead in the matter of reclaiming the d-wheel and deck.


	30. Chapter 30

It was September now, he thought to himself as he flew, Yuusei clearly visible below him as they came to the bar known as ‘Bootleg’ which Himuro had told them to find. Supposedly if they showed the bartender there a certain card, he’d be referred to someone who could get his D-Wheel and deck back- it would be risky, but well worth it.

And more than likely take some time as well. Literally months had passed since Yuusei’s arrest, and as the two Jack had been considering leading off were lost in the chaos of some unknown driver appearing to help Yuusei escape, the blond found himself laughing almost bitterly. What 'luck’, after all, that they were now mere days from the date of the tournament the twins had gone on about! The prisoners and officers after all, could hardly have missed muttering about such an event- and now here they were, so close it was almost 'convenient’.

Perhaps it would be good to look for Bolger now, he thought to himself, floating high above Saiga’s hide-away. It’d be some time before the preparations were ready after all, right? So then why not search while he could? He floated high above the city again, until he could almost touch the clouds before him, held aloft only by the massive waves of heat and energy coming from the city below. To most, the air would have felt cool if anything- however for him, he could feel every slight change in it, and for him, it was warm.

The skies as it seemed, were not only his domain however. Jack turned as something gold slowly streaked past him, floating back in the air as a string of sand trailed off toward an apartment complex nearby. He looked back to the string and watched as it branched out into a vine of endless length, with that which was furthest from him slowly increasing in width as it neared the source. He followed it of course- slowly floating around the strands, watching as the slightest tap sent fairies and dolphins and other childishly innocent beasts flying through the air, creatures that spun about him in play before rejoining the sand to find whatever dream it would create. Until at last, he came to an island of sorts, guested by only one being-

Who, turning as Jack stared in disbelief, reacted with an entirely calm sort of surprise, doing little more than raise his eyebrows as the blond hovered before him.

Hovered, and quickly enough, realized who he was looking to. “Sand,” he muttered, recalling who it was Frost had identified as the source of the jar in his home. “The Sandman?!” he 'asked’ clearly, Sandy merely blinking in continued disbelief before nodding with a smile. The smile was quick to fade as Jack continued, the blond stiffening with rage. “So- You’re one of those 'Guardians’ Frost knows then,” he growled, shaking on the spot. “The 'Guardians’ who do nothing!” he snapped, the Sandman initially shaking himself in apparently hurt shock. His mute state merely allowed Jack to continue however, the rage that had been well hidden and locked back at last finding one of their targets. “What’s so wrong with Satellite!” Jack questioned, pointing to the streaks of sand now entering the homes of Neo Domino’s children. “What’s so wrong with my home, that you can’t help anyone there?! You’re here aren’t you?” he roared, the one before him losing the hurt shock as he realized, it seemed, the origin of the spirit’s words. “If you’re here to protect these people, and help them, how come I’ve never seen you there!?”

The Sandman’s open-mouthed shock, slight as the expression was, seemed to be all he had in response. The sand-cloaked being closed his mouth and shook his head, sand seeming to cloud above his head and rain back down upon it as he bowed apologetically. ’ _Say something!_ ’ Jack wanted to shout, the silence grating at his nerves. ’ ** _SAY SOMETHING!_** ’

He couldn’t, he realized, the expression’s honesty sending a chill through his being. Neither speak, nor enter, he realized. “ _Why_?” he finally asked as the silence answered what could not be said, his voice hoarse from the shouting and from the raw emotion that had been poured into his words. “What can I do that you _can’t_!?”

The sandman merely smiled sadly, the expression almost despairing despite its attempt at comfort. His saddened gaze moved down toward the ground, and though he himself remained silent, the sirens from the air below were ringing loud and clear in his mind.

“ _Yuusei_ ,” he realized with a hiss, ducking down without question. Not a word more was said to the Sandman, whether in conversation or even farewell, not that it mattered. The Sandman merely watched as Jack darted down below to where a crowd of officers continued their pursuit of a duelist now again in possession of his rightful deck and D-Wheel, fires burning at the sides of the spirit moving to join him. Whether the fire would work to lure the officers away, who knew.

As the Sandman’s ship continued to move, streams of sand flowing with it, the Guardian could do little more than wish for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> September has passed and so-  
> Crow is now 16  
> Jack is technically 18  
> And of course, Yuusei is 17 while the Twins are 10


	31. Chapter 31

There were many officers there, but he had been certain the opportunity for escape would not be ignored if he lit the flame before their faces long enough. Yuusei had no desire to be recaptured, no reason to be marked twice over- more importantly, no knowledge of why he was being so determinedly hunted down in the first place.

Before Jack could bring his lantern down to set a wall of flame alight however, a stern voice cracked over the air- “Stop!”

With not flames, but rather a single word, the officers were sent back on their way. The source of the word- a fairly short man dressed in fine clothes- then turned to Yuusei with a somewhat sinister smile over his face. Evidently he realized there was no need to feign a trustworthy character- his boss had already made such a thing impossible after all.

“Yuusei Fudou is it?” he asked, if only for the sake of the conversation. “I am Vice-Director Jaeger,” the man introduced. “I’m sure that you understand what that means.” Yuusei did not answer, but rather narrowed his eyes; in response, Jaeger’s smile darkened further. “Good. I have for you a message from the Director,” Jaeger went on, holding out for the duelist an envelope. As Yuusei took it, the man crossed his arms behind his back, chuckling. “Be sure to remember his previous conversation when you look upon its contents…”

A previous conversation wasn’t even needed to understand what the contents meant, and if anything they would have both guessed without Jaeger’s input. The first thing that Yuusei pulled from the envelope was an invitation to the Fortune Cup.

However behind it, was a photograph. A candid shot of the friends Yuusei lived with now, Rally, Taka, Blitz and Nerve all in the same shot. The message was clear; participate.

Or else.

Yuusei’s efforts for the next few days would revert to the reason he had arrived in the first place however, rather than to any precautionary measures for the tournament itself. What with searching by foot likely to cause more difficulties in the hunt for Bolger than other methods however, it seemed Jack’s assistance in the background, noticed or not, would not be required. Even a simple computer search revealed Bolger as a company CEO after all- location was quite suddenly not a cause for delay, but rather Bolger’s own, more precise whereabouts.

A ‘business trip’, as it seemed, was the cause. Whether they liked it or not, there could be none in Japan who would reach him in person, because Bolger was not currently in _Japan_.

With that in mind there was little for Jack to do at Saiga’s hideaway before the tournament. He had stayed with him in the prison to an extent, but he could not sit around any longer, particularly not after that. So for the few days remaining before 'Fortune Cup’, he took to the skies instead. Watching, waiting, and looking for something he could do while unable to reach Satellite.

’ _I summon a monster face down!_ ’ someone shouted over the air, Jack’s attention drawn from his location far above.

That was a duel far below him, wasn’t it, he realized? There were 'levels’ of city life in this place, with Saiga’s hideaway and many other shadowed locations on the 'lower rung’ so to speak. What they had here was nothing so troubling as could be found in Satellite, he found- at least not the Satellite he spent so much time within.

You couldn’t possibly have duels like this in Satellite anymore, after all, and as he floated down he watched almost jealously, eyes wide with an almost childish curiosity which could not be hidden, and after all, why would he bother?

None here could see him. Only three in the world, save those 'guardians’ Frost mentioned, could do that.

_This_ was a duel, he thought to himself, coming down over the field as a summon chant entered his ears. _This_ -

“ARISE! _BLACK ROSE DRAGON_!”

Was nothing like duels were ever meant to be.

“Mn-!?”

The dragon appeared and screams hit the air, Jack turning only to find himself slammed to the ground by thick black vines. His shout was cut short by the air being pulled all too soon from his lungs, leaving him gasping for air whilst those around screamed in terror. Those who could, ran. Those who could not, found a way to escape regardless, for it seemed that the aims of she who controlled the beast were not death.

“HGh… Hahh… Ahh…” His vision blurred and blinked in and out with stars over them, only clearing as an enormous black scaled face met his view. “Nh-!” Dragon!?

“ _ **NrrrrRRAAAAAAAOOOOHHHHHHHH!**_ ”

“Gh-”

“Who are you!?”

He opened his eyes yet again as he fought off the pain, looking as the dragon raised its head to give view of its master. A woman cloaked heavily in red and black, with a mask over her face, stood before him and as she did so she gripped her arm tight. The dragon turned its gaze back upon him, and as it growled lowly Jack stiffened, fire reflexively jumping over his hands and blinking out in an instant.

As the flames appeared and faded, the woman before him gave a cry of alarm, the grip on her arm tightening as she pulled back a glove- and a red shine blazed forth from it, with Jack staring almost incredulously from the distance as her dragon stared suspiciously. “You’re-” He shook himself, standing. “You’re a _signer_?” he asked, looking up to the dragon again.

The beast looked down and there could be no doubts that it was real, no doubt that what stood before him was of flesh and blood of another sort. It looked to him with recognition, and rather than staring with rage there seemed to be something else in its eyes as it backed away, wings folded against its almost avian body.

“Tch!” The woman’s snort brought his gaze back down, and in an instant another card was set upon her duel disk. “Wretched boy!” she snarled, pointing accusingly as the spell activated. Wretched!? Before he could shout anything back, he was blinded by a pillar of light, forced to raise his arm to the blast and left staring at empty space when it cleared.

“What in hell…” He was left with ruined ground and distant cries, and the memory of the dragon and its master in the back of his mind.

With nothing left, there was nothing for him to do then, it seemed. So in his confusion he kicked off from the ground and flew away, back toward the direction of Saiga’s hideaway, to hopefully find a chair or something to sleep in.

While in the recesses of a darkened alleyway, the 'Black Rose Witch’ struggled to regain her composure over what had just occurred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aki was born in August, so she's only 15 here!


	32. Chapter 32

The opening ceremonies were like nothing he had ever seen, though looking at such a list made the fact somewhat less impressive. A roar of wind met the air and an enormous holographic dragon followed, covered in gold armor and machinery as a D-Wheel carrying the twins roared out.

_‘Yah-hOO!’_ Rua had shouted as the duo charged around the ring, before jumping the bike onto the stage by way of some clever machine work programmed into the device. It skid to a stop and both hopped out, Rua cheerfully saluting the crowd whilst his sister shyly bowed and waved as well. They were the Twin Monarchs, the child duelists who fought side by side with a combined deck- and as the crowd cheered them, the stage was guested by eight others for the tournament’s main event.

He watched from a distance- he had no wish to find his seat sat on while he was still within it, nor did he fancy the idea of sitting on the steps only to be walked through. As it were, there were strange satellite-devices littered all around the lower areas of the arena, devices which made him feel all too uncomfortable. So instead, he sat above the watch-tower at the side, lantern gripped loosely in one arm while he looked below.

It was dueling as he had never seen it, an arena of equals, as one of the competitors themselves had reminded those in the crowd. He would have wanted to participate himself, needless to say.

…He supposed that the twins would have to do that for him, with the card he had left in their possession then.

The initial matches passed as expected for the most part, albeit with a few surprises. Yuusei won his first match of course- and how could he have possibly done otherwise? He expected no less of him! And he looked forward to watching what this final match would become. Aki Izayoi- the woman he’d encountered the day before- as well moved swiftly through the matches, with her second match due to take place after Yuusei’s own.

The one due to face Yuusei now, in the meantime, would be 'Bommer’, the same man who had stepped forward to calm the audience when muttering arose in the face of his friend’s marker. It would be no trouble of course, Jack assumed from his tower place. No matter how tight the duel became, Yuusei would win.

Bommer’s loss however, brought more than merely defeat. ’ _Are you alright?_ ’ Yuusei called out to the man, Jack merely waiting for the next battle. Bommer had stumbled to his feet, clutching something tightly in his hand as the MC began to announce the won battle-

At which point the voice feed cut for Bommer’s own voice to take over. For his own words to thunder through the air again, trembling with rage not for defeat but something else altogether. On the enormous holographic screen at the center of the arena, the sight of Bommer’s village was unavoidable.

As was the devastating wave of destruction which wiped it from existence. Destroying friends, destroying family- all that he had known, in an instant, the man accused. And whose fault was it? Whose fault, but the very man standing within the tower Jack sat upon?!

The engine roared and before he could even react the bike soared through the air, blocked only by Yuusei’s own D-Wheel. Lest he be slashed by the metal spikes that was coming near, Jack dove off the side of the tower, looking back only to watch in horror as it instead broke through the glass windows around it. Inside, the twins ducked for cover from the flying shards of glass.

However the director did not even flinch, merely throwing an arm upward to catch it with his hand. “How-” Jack started in shock, as sparks flew from the contact of metal and metal. The spike fell to the ground. The tattered glove from the director’s hand now revealed a gleaming prosthetic, which was casually hidden from cameras behind his back.

Bommer was taken away by Security officers not long after that. Yuusei in the meantime wheeled his bike away to make certain nothing had been damaged too extensively with the jump he’d just made.

The MC in the meantime would find power restored to to the mic, a message from the Director allowing the tournament to proceed 'as normal’.

If, he found himself wondering with a scowl as he sat upon the tower again, anything about the tournament was normal at all.


	33. Chapter 33

He wasn’t sure what he wanted from the duel between Aki and her opponent, at least not at the start. The woman was dangerous, that was for certain- her monsters sent the crowd into fits of terror and they cowered in their seats as barbed vines tore at the ‘Witch’s’ opponent.

The duel progressed and he didn’t have much trouble picking a side any more. The psychiatrist was determined to bring the past up before his opponent, with cards to mirror his knowledge regardless of what damage he took. He went even further over the line near the end, however. In the instant the Black Rose Dragon appeared, and in an instant, the profiler’s final words awoke his own destruction. 'Monster!’ he had called her, a vicious grin on his face. 'You’re nothing but a monster, whose own parents can’t stand to acknowledge!’

Aki’s dragon snarled, and the Signer mark gleamed brilliantly, the final move scattering the beast into petals for the sake of an activated spell.

“Sic’ him.”

“H-HHR _AAAAAAAAAAaAAAAAAAAAH-_!”

Jack watched from above with narrowed eyes, as an emergency team rushed for the fallen opponent and Aki left the stage. They were calling for a break now- a moment to clean the arena as best they could, to prepare for the next match, the final match.

For that reason, he hopped down from the tower to look for the inner rooms of the ring, the waiting areas for the remaining competitors. He couldn’t be seen, not by Yuusei of course. However it would at least be good to see how he was faring from his own semi-final match. Such was his reasoning, at least when the question of needing a reason came to mind.

In the tower itself in the meantime, the glass was cleared and the room neatened back up while the twins sat to the side. “HEhhhhhhh…” Rua for his part was still staring rather owlishly at the director’s arm, his sister scolding him quietly for being rude. “I didn’t know you had a fake arm!” he exclaimed, his sister merely sighing.

Godwin, apparently amused by the reaction, merely smiled calmly. “It was lost in an accident,” he told them, looking to the cards that had been scattered to the ground by the crash moments before. “Now then- perhaps you should get your deck back in order,” he warned, Rua jumping with a startled laugh.

“Ah-! R-Right!” he shouted, scrambling for the cards. “Neh, Ruka!”

“I’m helping, I’m helping,” she responded somewhat exasperatingly, grabbing a few from the ground. “We need to decide what cards we’ll use in the last battle too,” she warned, the others in the room merely watching as the deck was regathered.

“Ehh- We can’t just use the normal cards?”

“Rua! We have to be careful!”

“But, but I am careful!”

The girl sighed, shaking her head as she put a few of the cards in her hand into a neat pile on the coffee table. Briefly glancing to the cards himself, Godwin looked back to the scattered ones for a moment only to pause- slowly moving toward one in particular and picking it up with wide eyes.

“Aaaah-!” Rua shouted, watching as Godwin looked the card over. “C-Careful,” he warned worriedly, “That card is-”

“The Red Daemon’s Dragon,” Godwin murmured, looking to the duo with eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Where did you get this?” he asked, Rua swallowing a moment before his answer.

“We- We got it from Jack Atlas!” he announced, Ruka immediately turning to fix him with a shocked stare. “He’s a spirit!” the boy continued proudly, “He had the wings before I did, so he gave me the card!”

“R-Rua!” Ruka protested, her brother merely looking back with a naive shrug.

“What? It’s the truth!”

“The previous owner of the wings?” Godwin asked quietly, looking over the card for a moment. Carefully, he held it back for Rua to take, looking to the boy sternly as he continued. “Take good care of this card,” he warned. “This is a 'Signer Dragon’- it’s not like any other,” he added, Ruka staring with wide eyes.

“You mean… Like Ancient Fairy Dragon is?” she asked, Godwin merely nodding.

“Correct. It’s entirely invaluable,” the man warned. “Be sure to use it in your final fight.”

“Ah- in the final?” Ruka questioned almost blankly.

Her brother merely nodded, and with a grin placed the card with the pile on the table. “Heheee! Definitely!” he laughed, his sister going back to gathering the cards. It was strange, but it felt to her as though such a battle would be the only one they could summon the dragon within. After that, it seemed…

It felt as though Red Daemons wasn’t ready to leave Jack just yet.

It was entirely likely that Jack was unaware of this of course. He couldn’t speak to spirits in the cards, nor pull them out to reality as Aki could. Even if the question of possibility arose, the question of what would happen if Aki were to summon it, it was unlikely that Jack would want anything to do with it.

After all, at the moment he was taking refuge within a niche in the hall to avoid her gaze. He’d merely been following Yuusei- listening as he received an update from Saiga on the situation in Satellite, and the still worrisome state of his friends. As a shudder passed through his being however he’d ducked and hid, and he was rather glad he had done so.

He doubted Aki would use any sort of tact with his presence- and he wasn’t ready to do that to Yuusei, not at all. Yuusei and Aki met only briefly; in the moments they did, they were met by Jaeger, and soon afterward those who called themselves Aki’s 'caretakers’ as well arrived. Perhaps if they had simply walked past him, he would have been fine. Yuusei and those with him were long gone in the opposite direction, and Aki now walked past with her own party.

She did not ignore him however, and in fact Jack wasn’t entirely sure how she spotted him at all. “ _You_!” she hissed, stopping in place as those with her paused. “What are you doing here!?”

“Ngh- I can watch duels if I want!” he retorted angrily, scowling as those at Aki’s side stared.

“Who are you speaking with?” Divine asked carefully, the woman not at all questioning his inability to see the spirit.

“A boy,” she stated clearly. “A boy, who feels like the wretched mark on my arm!”

“Wretched?” Jack snarled, “What’s so wretched about it!?”

There was no answer, and Divine placed a comforting hand on his charge’s shoulder. “Pay him no mind then,” he warned carefully. “And be wary- it would seem the Dragon will try anything to steal you for his own devices.”

“Steal-” What!? “What kind of bullshit is that?” Jack snapped back, only to scowl as Aki turned to walk away. “What would you know about me, you can’t even see me! You’re the one trying to 'steal’ someone!”

“Stop!” Again Aki paused in the hall, however rather than turning back she merely clenched her fists and growled. “Divine is worth so much more than that- And you,” she hissed, “Are nothing in comparison! Leave for whatever hell you came from,” she demanded, continuing on her way. “And never appear before me again!”

A- “I wasn’t looking for you anyways!” he shouted back. “Oii! Hear that!?”

There was no answer of course, with Aki already having turned the corner to leave. It seemed there was nothing left to do then but return to the ring as well- to float back to his seat on the watchtower, and wait for the final match to begin.


	34. Chapter 34

From where he sat on the tower he doubted he could be seen, and even if he could, it would only be Aki who spotted him. With what had happened in the hall, he doubted Aki would even acknowledge that fact really-

He’d prefer it be that way as it was.

The crowd was roaring with rage, and he found himself biting back both a snarl and a wave of fire in response. Those who had booed Yuusei suddenly cheered him on to slaughter the ‘Witch’, to slam her into the ground as she had done to those before him- it was an audience of bias fear, fear for the woman in red, and an almost twisted desire to watch one destroy the other.

From the start, it seemed that would happen in fact. 'Rose Tentacles’ as it was called appeared upon the field and with its effect pulled the marked duelist into the air with spread limbs, only to slam him solidly into the ground with an echoing crack. “NH- YUUSEI!”

Aki smiled.

Yuusei however, managed to stand. And as he did so Jack hovered from where he’d moved from the tower, watching from the air above and grinding his teeth in agitation. There would be nothing he could do about this, nothing at all.

The duel continued. Vines whipped the ground and soon the verdant green of Rose Tentacles, destroyed by Yuusei’s Junk Warrior, were replaced by the Black Rose Dragon. Any cheers he made from high above were cut short, and any hate for those in the audience was but briefly abandoned-

Fire burned and wind raged against Yuusei as he threw up two shields for his defense, and it did nothing for those behind him. “Ah-!”

“Tch- Dammit!” Jack growled, darting forward once again. From his line of sight came a wall of flames in an instant, sending those which would have seared the seats of the audience back. Whether or not those there could have told the difference between the two was unknown, but then again he did not hold them there long. The shouts from the crowd increased with fervency, pounding the air and rumbling through his ears- 'kill her!’ they demanded, 'kill the witch!’

Aki did not deny that this was what she was. And, hidden for the moment behind Yuusei as the blond stood upon one of the many ledges between himself and the duel track, Jack found himself wondering if there was something _wrong_ with this woman. If this smile wasn’t perhaps one he’d seen before already, if there was something here that he had missed from before.

“Ghh. Finish this!” Jack shouted to Yuusei, the one who heard him snapping her gaze behind the man. Saying nothing however, Aki’s attention was drawn back to the Junk Warrior on the field, the monster’s power rising exponentially as two more of Yuusei’s signature cards came into play. “Let’s get this over with!” he shouted louder, only for Yuusei’s words to drown them out.

“Clustering wishes become a new star- become the path its light shines upon!” Yuusei started, his unseen friend staring in horror. “Synchro Summon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!”

“Wh- WHAT!?”

“ ** _AaaAAAOUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN!_** ”

The dragon rose high above them, and as long white wings scattered a dust over them, Jack stared. “W-What are you doing!” he snapped, “Junk Warrior had more power!”

Of course, he could not be heard despite this however. And so with ground teeth he looked back to the field. There was a reason for this, he told himself, a reason! There was always a reason, this was Yuusei!

“Ngh-!”

A shudder passed through him, and as the dragons destroyed each other, a burning red mark became visible through Yuusei’s sleeve.

“Gh- H… How!” he shouted despite himself, looking to the mark in shock. As Yuusei turned however, the dragons scattered, and the mark faded- so with momentarily confused eyes, Yuusei looked back. “You too,” Jack protested, “You’re- OII! Look at me!” he screamed, the duel moving as expected. As though she had drowned out all that was outside of the duel, even Aki paid him no mind, broken smile visible from beneath her broken mask. “LOOK AT ME!” he cried, but in the end as Black Rose Dragon and Stardust both returned, he fell silent.

Yuusei had a plan, and that plan involved breaking the persona that Aki had developed, whether he had intended for that from the start or not. And whether he intended it or not, his words furthered Jack’s silence as he watched the duel. ’ _Your pain has become one that all of us with the birthmark must bear_ ,’ he had said clearly.

He didn’t have a birthmark though, he wanted to protest. He had nothing to do with this now, nothing! Yet the shuddering pain ran through his being once again and the dragon under Aki’s control fixed him with a chilling glare as the duelist’s plan was set into motion. He had nothing to do with this, he wanted to protest. Nothing-!

“You truly are a wretched foe,” Aki cursed, preparing for the final move of the duel.

However Yuusei, ever calm, merely asked- “If that’s true, then why are you crying?”

His strategy came into play, and as Aki’s mask shattered the woman crumpled and fell to the ground, breathing ragged and eyes swimming with tears.

“ _Help._..”

The crowd was roaring again, yet it was Aki’s voice which seemed the clearest in that instant.

And as Yuusei turned to prepare for his final match, Jack following invisibly behind him, it seemed that it was the only voice they’d heard in those moments at all.


	35. Chapter 35

With how the last duel came to an end, the darkness was unbearably pressuring. They both knew it, even if only one was aware of the other’s presence. They both felt the weight of the events in that battle, yet what could be done? It was hopeless for either of them.

What exactly he thought was hopeless, he wasn’t even sure.

The engine started however, and Jack pulled himself onto the back of the D-Wheel, hidden and unseen by the one driving it. The door ahead of them opened- light, nearly blinding followed, and just as quickly they could hear the voice of the MC come over the air. It was time for the final battle-

It was time for the fight against the champions.

“WHOO-H _OOOOOOO_!” came the familiar cheer, Yuusei’s bike quickly joined by another at the start line. “Ah-” Briefly the boy froze as he spotted Jack on the top of his opponent’s bike. However as the blond hurriedly shook his head, Ruka as well lightly nudging her brother into silence. So instead he grinned, eyes turning toward Yuusei as the teen looked back in surprise. “Let’s have a fun match!” he cheered, giving a light salute as his sister nodded.

For a moment perhaps he was caught off guard, but Yuusei quickly recovered, smiling. “Aah,” he decided, hiding all too well the discomfort on what was yet on the line. “Let’s!”

If it had been up to Yuusei, they would have cornered Rex Godwin by now, but they hadn’t.

And so, there was only this. The engines roared and above them the counter began to shrink down. Three, and faces were focused on the lights above. Two, and Jack adjusted his grip, clinging to the end of Yuusei’s bike to wait for the right moment to kick off. One- the engines hum increased in volume as they prepared to remove the brakes and-

“ _RIDING DUEL, ACCELERATION!_ ”

- _VVRRRRRNNNNNN-!_

The vehicles tore off and as they steadily gathered speed Jack looked behind him to feel the heat of the engine rise. With a smirk, he kicked back from the bike and into the air, briefly causing those who saw him to falter in their drive.

“Rua!” Ruka shouted, the boy hurriedly turning back to the track-

“Ah- Right!” he laughed somewhat nervously, their opponent staring curiously. “Since you’re the challenger,” he continued with a grin, “You get to move first!”

“Let’s make it a fun duel,” his sister added calmly, their opponent finding himself rather unable to respond with anything but small smile.

“Aah,” he began, and as he drew his cards the duel started. “I summon Shield Wing in Defense mode,” he announced clearly, and in a scattering of light the dragon appeared, folding its wings around himself as the blue fade of dormancy came upon him. “I then set two cards, and end my turn!”

The bikes came around the bend of the track, and in an instant the twins came to their move. With a sixth card drawn, both looked over the screen their unique D-Wheel held, and from his position above Jack could see little more than specks of light from them. He did not have long to wait before there was more however. “We summon Morphtronic Scopen, in attack mode!” Rua cried, as what appeared to initially be no more than an enormous microscope unfolded into the triple-lensed robot. “Scopen’s effect activates,” he continued, his sister finishing his words.

“It allows us to search our deck for one level four Morphtronic, special summoning it to the field,” she announced clearly, Jack ducking back somewhat as the second appeared.

“Morphtronic Boomboxen!” Rua cheered, the radio which appeared in a flurry of light clicking and unhinging upon itself before forming the large bodied machine. With a larger grin the boy pointed forward, Jack forcing himself to bite back a comment on such idiocy. “Boomboxen attacks!” he started, the monster darting forward only for its fist to crunch audibly against the Shield-Wing’s form. “Eh!?”

“Shield Wing cannot be destroyed twice per turn,” Yuusei explained clearly, Ruka merely looking down at her brother with a sigh. Briefly, the teen seemed to hold an expression of shock; it was no secret that the ‘ace’ of the twins was 'Power Tool Dragon’- a level seven synchro, for which they had the materials right there.

So then why hadn’t they summoned it? “Rua…”

“Tch. At least get a monster with piercing abilities,” Jack muttered from above, albeit largely unheard over the crowd and the MC.

Nonetheless Rua’s grin only returned, the boy nodding as he took a card from his hand. “Hah! Alright,” he decided, slipping it into the disk of the D-Wheel. “We set one card down, and end our turn!”

“In the end phase,” Ruka continued calmly, the glittering shards of solid vision breaking apart at her side, “Morphtronics special summoned by Morphtronic Scopen are sent to the graveyard.”

As the monster did so, both Yuusei and Jack stared. It was clear that something was not quite right here; the chance to summon their ace had been passed, but why? However while Yuusei’s suspicion persisted, Jack found himself with a needling sensation in the back of his mind, his eyes slowly widening as a thought drew forward.

Could it be? That the card he’d given them ages before, would only now-

“I summon Junk Synchron!” Yuusei shouted out, his words cutting Jack’s thoughts short. And immediately the blond knew what was about to appear, the spirit allowing himself to float somewhat closer to the track as he watched. “Tuning him with Shield Wing! _Clustering stars call upon a new force_ ,” he chanted, rings of digitized light rising through the air as Junk Synchron scattered forth into tuning stars. “ _Become the path its light shines upon_! Synchro Summon!” Yuusei called, the Shield Wing soaring forward and scattering as the light reformed, “Come, Junk Warrior!”

“ _ **HHHmmP**_!” Briefly scooting back to avoid the warrior’s fist, Jack laughed, grinning as he looked down. How would they counter this now, he wondered, not at all ignorant to the continued confidence of Yuusei’s opponents.

How would they defend? “Junk Warrior attacks Morphtronic Scopen!” Yuusei announced, the monster charging forward with a fist drawn back. “ _ **Scrap Fist**_!”

“Activate trap!” Rua countered immediately, the fist blocked as a card swung upward to Scopen’s defense. The bike only briefly tilted off to the side as it recovered from the narrow dodge, the wheels straightening themselves in an instant as the twins focused on their move. “Morphtransition!”

“When a face-up Morphtronic monster we control is selected for attack,” Ruka explained further, “We negate the attack and change the battle position of the targetted monster.”

“Morphtronic Scopen enters defense mode,” her brother went on, still grinning. “And through his effect,” he added, a brief hologram flashing over the monster as a notifier, “His level becomes '4’!”

“Four,” Jack muttered under his breath, his gaze briefly met with Rua’s own. The boy’s grin took an almost secretive tone- as though to silently share and acknowledge an unspoken question, with an answer none could have possibly expected.

“ _Four_?” Yuusei appeared to murmur to himself, suspicious for entirely separate reasons. Perhaps they had a new trump card, he thought to himself. Perhaps there was something he missed. Nonetheless before the move could pass he followed his failed attack through with one more move, a card raising in response to the twins’ own. “Trap activate!” he began, the image facing his opponent as they turned the track again. From the card’s face came a swift blast of fire and wind, leaving the twins to shudder somewhat as they shouted in shock. “Synchro Blast! As long as this card is face up on the field,” he continued, the twins quickly righting themselves even as they dipped behind their opponent, “My opponents take 500 lifepoints in damage when a Synchro Monster I control attacks!”

“Ngh-” Rua grimaced, forcing himself to grin nonetheless. “Ehehehe… We didn’t see that one coming!” he admitted, his sister merely shaking her head behind him. “But,” the boy continued, Yuusei ending his turn as his opponents drew their next card, “We have something up our sleeve too!”

Jack’s slight shock slowly grew into an expression of wonder, and before his eyes the field seemed to glow, regardless of the gathering clouds above them. “We summon Morphtronic Radion,” Ruka began, the radio phone scattering onto the field and clacking apart into the bola-wielding warrior that it was. “And following that,” she announced clearly, “We tune him with Morphtronic Scopen!”

“Mn- Tuning!?” Yuusei started, his suspicions seemingly proven. And from above Jack merely stared, held aloft only by the heat of the bikes as his face froze to the point he thought his eyes were watering.

The twins began to call the summon chant, and it seemed they really did water. “ _The heartbeat of a spirit now files through here! Bear witness to its roaring power!_ SYNCHRO SUMMON!” the twins both cried, rings of light scattering as a dragon he had not seen for years appeared to the field. “ _THE SOUL OF THE FIRE SPIRIT!_ ” they roared, “ _ **RED DAEMON’S DRAGON**_!”

The soul of the fire spirit, they said? “Ngh…” He wasn’t crying, he told himself, unable to look at 'his’- their dragon, for long. Red Daemon’s roared ferociously, and his wings beat the air with an audible sound, one that not even the roaring crowd could surpass. The MC shouted with shock at the development below them- a dragon never seen before, clearly one of a kind- a true king of beasts, now flying before them here!

There was a part of him that couldn’t keep himself from thinking with some pride that this was 'his’ dragon they spoke of. His dragon, his very _soul_ in a great sense, and that was what the crowd was cheering now. He could not keep a smile from his face because of this. He could do nothing but look to the twins below, the twins who looked back in a gesture that to the crowd would seemingly be little more than a look toward the monster they’d summoned, and nod his head in thanks.

This was why he had given them Red Daemons after all, was it not? And look now, it had happened! Red Daemons would take part in the duels the wondrous dragon deserved, duels that he himself could never even hope to try.

Never…

“Where,” a shaking voice asked, Jack looking down in shock as the two D-Wheels came once again into close quarters with another. “Where did you _get that card_?!” Yuusei asked in rigid horror, his eyes wide as he looked to the Red Daemons above.

“Yuusei,” Jack started, looking back to the teen with realization dawning upon him. It had been his card after all, until only so recently. His card, from his deck, which had been on his being when he died-

So where else could Yuusei have possibly thought Red Daemon’s to be, but the bottom of the waters near Satellite!?

Ruka seemed to realize the connection the two held, and quietly tapped Rua before he could retort his defense. And so instead of questioning why he knew of the card, he answered- “It was given to us from a friend!”

“A very good friend,” Ruka added calmly, hoping that the words would at least partially calm their opponent.

However instead it seemed he now seethed in rage, and as Jack hovered near, the spirit swallowed. It was a silent anger, for what other kind could Yuusei have? His gaze hardened and he seemed to look toward the tower across from them on the track, resolve cool and steady.

The twins of course had no idea why this could possibly be- of what brought Yuusei here from the start, of what the nearest conclusion to draw would be as a result. However as Jack stared at his friend in silence, in the end, the duel had to continue.

And so it did. “Red Daemon’s Dragon attacks Junk Warrior!” Rua announced, the beast pulling his clawed hand back before striking forward with it as he roared. “ _ **ABSOLUTE POWER FORCE**_!”

“ _ **rrRAAAAOOOOOOOOoNNN!**_ ”

“MNg-!” The flames of the dragon’s palm seared through the hologram, scattering it into panels of light and dust while Yuusei’s D-Wheel faltered in the aftermath. This time it was he who fell back, if only slightly, and as he straightened himself Ruka’s section of the bike turned for the girl to face him directly.

“We set three cards and end our turn,” she stated calmly, her expression to Yuusei almost apologetic. “It’s your move, Yuusei-san.”

In that same instant Jack lowered himself closer to Ruka and Rua’s D-Wheel, looking back toward his friend as steeled blue stared directly through him. There was nothing to say except the usual in the end- The duelist drew his card and with but a glance at what he held, moved to reveal another from the field. “I activate Descending Lost Star,” he announced, the trap rising upward as it scattered into light. “Letting me revive one monster from the graveyard in defense position, at the cost of downgrading it’s level by one, negating its effects, and,” he continued, the list of downsides highly outclassed by the foreseen outcome, “Lowering its defense to zero!” he finished, the Junk Warrior reappearing in a flash of blue and white before crouching alongside the moving D-Wheel. “I also summon Hyper Synchron,” Yuusei went on, Ruka and Jack both taking in a breath as the monster’s details came to mind. “To tune together with Junk Warrior!”

- _bRMMMMMmmmmmmm…_ -

Thunder pealed through the air but they drove on, the tension on the air serving as more than enough distraction for them all. Here it came, Jack told himself. The dragon from the duels prior, and the answer to his question from Aki’s duel. He had seen him after all, right?

He’d seen him right!? He had to have!

In that instant after all, he’d heard his name, so he couldn’t be wrong, he simply _couldn’t_ -

“ _Clustering wishes become a new shining star_!” Yuusei announced as the rings hovered high above him. “ _Become the path its light shines upon_! Synchro Summon!” he roared, and as scales formed and light glimmered, so too did the monster he called into existence. “ ** _TAKE FLIGHT! STARDUST DRAGON!_** ”

“ ** _aaAAAAOOOOOOOOooooNNN!_** ”

The thunder pealed again, and this time as the light from the magnificent dragon’s wings cleared, Jack did not stare out of awe or wonder, but instead an almost betrayed silence, the blond floating back and up between the dragons lest he be forced to withstand the continued stare toward nothingness.

He couldn’t see him, he told himself, even as the mark on Yuusei’s arm below only now began to burn into the skin. He couldn’t, that was that, he told himself grimly. That was part of why he gave away his card, that was part of why he’d given in to such a cowardly path.

This was how it would always be, in the end.

Due to Hyper Synchron’s effect, he could hear Yuusei explain coolly, Stardust dragon not only gained 800 attack points, but now could no longer be destroyed by battle. And yet below he did not see fear in the twins eyes, nor even a speck of worry.

In fact it was anything but that. “We activate Tuner Capture in this instant!” Ruka announced, the trap flipping upward as the holographic vision of a card flew forth from Yuusei’s grave. “Special summoning the tuner monster used in our opponent’s synchro summon to our field, in defense mode!”

“Mn-!” Briefly Yuusei’s eyes widened as the monster slowly shimmered into appearance, blue coated form crouched down to shield itself from potential attack. However they quickly narrowed yet again, and with an outstretched hand he continued. “Very well,” he started. “Stardust Dragon attacks Red Daemon’s Dragon!” he roared, the monster charging a blast of fire in its maw as Yuusei looked upward. Perhaps by chance, or perhaps otherwise, but the great white dragon’s wings failed to reveal even a speck of the spirit watching the duel now, with its master seeing naught but glittering white. “ _ **SHOOTING SONIC**_!”

“We activate our other trap!” the twins countered, the darkened sky above them seeming to swirl with continued unidentified rage. “Tuner’s Mind! We return Red Daemon’s Dragon to the extra deck,” they explained, the dragon scattering into light and dust whilst Stardust closed its maw in evident confusion, “Bringing the synchro materials to the field in defense position!”

“Mn-!” Jack’s attention returned to the field, and similarly Yuusei’s locked upon the monsters at his opponent’s side. The obvious choice, of course, would be to target Radion; as the only non tuner, taking either of the others on the field would mean that Red Daemon’s returned.

And so- “Stardust Dragon attacks Morphtronic Radion!” he announced, but as the fires shot forward it was Scopen who took the blow, the flames seeming to reflect from Radion’s surface to that end. “What!?”

Ruka merely turned her seat to face Yuusei, calm stare met with Yuusei’s yet chilled one. “With the card 'Tuner’s Mind’,” she explained, “The tuner which is special summoned is forced to take part in battle.”

“Which means you destroyed Morphtronic Scopen!” Rua finished, the hologram long vanished into a cloud of smoke and light.

“However Synchro Blast’s effect still activates,” Yuusei continued sternly, the trap card’s fires blasting over the twins as he said this. Though both of them cringed under the blast however they held strong, bike only barely tipping as they fell back somewhat. “You  take 500 points of damage!” There was no verbal response to that, with Ruka merely turning her seat to face forward, as her brother did. With that in mind, Yuusei looked back ahead, Jack himself floating down toward the field yet again as he did so. “I end my turn,” he told them, focusing on the drive ahead.

And with that, the twins drew their next card, Jack grinning as he floated beside them. “Let’s show them Red Daemon’s again,” he found himself saying aloud, the twins briefly looking to him in mild surprise. Nonetheless, as Ruka smiled and looked back to her screen, Rua grinned toothily.

“Hahah-! Alright!” he shouted, adding his card to his hand. “Let’s get going!”

“First,” Ruka began calmly, half out of a reminder to her brother, “We play the Speed Spell 'Cards of Sanctity’,” she explained, the spell appearing in a wave of peaceful light and dust as Yuusei looked to the card in surprise. “At the cost of three of our Speed Counters, both of us may draw until we have six cards in our hand,” she went on, their opponent looking back to his deck to do just that. “And now,” she went on, her brother’s grin widening in his excitement. 

“We’re going to tune Morphtronic Radien with Hyper Synchron!” Rua cheered, his sister nodding behind him.

“ _Behold_ ,” she began, soon joined along with not only Rua, but Jack as well. “ _The hearbeat of a spirit now files through here! Bear witness to its roaring power,_ ” they continued, voices loud and echoing about the air as Yuusei slowly looked back with widening eyes. “SYNCHRO SUMMON-!”

“WITNESS IT, _MY VERY SOUL_!” Jack announced clearly, the twins looking upward as the brilliant panels of light and dust formed behind the spirit, red and black gleaming in the light of his own flame as the Red Daemon’s roar filled the air. “ _ **RED DAEMON’S DRAGON**_!”

“ ** _GRAAAAOOOOOOOOOooOOOOONNNN!_** ”

Yuusei’s shock was what allowed them to continue without thought, even as red lightning began to streak through the sky. “… _Jack_?” the blond thought he heard, but surely it was a trick of the wind. What the spirit saw before him at the moment was nothing but his- the Dragon’s opponent, the brilliant white-winged beast before him.

“In this moment,” Rua shouted, “We activate the trap Rising Energy!”

“By discarding one card from our hand,” Ruka continued, “Red Daemon’s Dragon gains 1500 attack points until the end phase.”

“Eheeee! Even if you can’t be destroyed by battle,” her brother laughed, “This isn’t something to sneeze at! Red Daemon’s Dragon!” he ordered, voice soon echoed by Jack’s own. “Attack!”

“ ** _ABSOLUTE POWER FORCE-!_** ”

-r ** _rRNNOOOORrrROOOOOOOOOOOOO!_** -

“Gnh- _gh_!”

In an instant, it felt as though his body was being torn apart from the inside out. Perhaps this feeling had come the last time the dragons clashed, or perhaps not- they hadn’t really come in contact with the other then, after all, so why would it have?

However in that instant flames not at all unlike his own filled the air, and as he fumbled along the sky a song-like roar entered his ears- and fire, warm and bright, followed it.

“This light,” Ruka whispered, staring to the beast in awe. The marks on their arms were alight and gleaming, and above them the great red dragon swam around them on the winds. “It’s exactly like…”

“The crimson dragon,” Rua realized, and from his own D-Wheel, Yuusei merely stared. Stared initially at the flaming beast as it flew behind and then over them, and then soon enough to the figure clutching a lantern staff tightly in his hands, head bowed and face pained.

And as he looked up, Jack realized with a jolt that this time his friend was not looking to what was behind him, as though he never existed. He wasn’t looking to thin air, or to some strange hazed illusion that could so easily be thrown from mind. 

He could _see_ \- “Jack,” Yuusei realized, gaze fading from its hardened glare and instead filling with a fearful and questioning stare, as though a single blink would erase what hovered before him. “You…”

The more he stared, the more he realized, and the more the stare was returned, the more the pain faded as Jack straightened himself, looking to his friend with a smile slowly coming to appear on his face. “You can see me,” he finally said, eyes watering yet again. “You can _see_ me!” he laughed, shaking himself in disbelief, “After all this time-”

Before he could finish his words there was a scream from behind him, and looking back he could see exactly why. The dragons were swallowed up into the maw of the great Crimson Dragon, consumed by flame as the beast pursued them through the track and they were the next in line. As Yuusei as well turned to realize what occurred however, the fires consumed the D-Wheels as well, filling Jack’s vision with naught but red and gold and white until finally it blinded him completely, throwing him back on the air as he closed his eyes and bit back a cry.

He opened them, and saw the _stars_. Stars brighter than he’d ever seen, more than even the ones above Neo Domino, or above Satellite’s clouded air. Beneath him the others as well appeared, the dragons joining them once again. And above-

“Mn- Aki!”

“You!?” As the red bubble which shielded Aki’s form hovered before him the woman pulled back, a frown automatically appearing on her face. “What are _you_ doing-”

Before she could finish her words the woman looked down, watching as the duel’s events were briefly ignored for another thing- and floating downward, the vision before them cleared further, a brilliant stepped pyramid tower rising high before them as a red star gleamed over it.

“I know that building!” Rua exclaimed, the path their bikes drove upon taking them closer and closer until finally they drove upward and over it. “That’s the tower that Godwin showed us!”

Behind him his sister nodded, Yuusei and Jack both looking to them confusedly. “Godwin did?” Yuusei asked, Ruka merely watching as they passed over crowds of people below, five in particular standing out with marks upon their arms as the duelists passed overhead.

“The people of the stars,” she murmured, Jack merely flinching as he spotted the marks on the arms of the 'people’. A people of thousands of years old, and they bore the same mark everyone else did here. The same marks resembling the dragon that had swallowed them, which in turn bore flame that felt like his own.

“So how long has this been going on then?” he found himself wondering aloud, only for their path to take them elsewhere. “Mn-!”

“Satellite!” Yuusei realized, the ruinous city all too recognizable  As violet flames tore through the ground of it however the teen turned with a start, a pained and stifled cry coming from the spirit beside him. “Jack!?”

“Jack!” the twins shouted, watching as the blond curled in upon himself. “Jack! Hey!”

“Ngh… What is that!?” he hissed lowly, looking below as the flames formed a shape into the ground. The buildings encompassed by the cracks in the earth crumbled to naught but worn and powdered dust, and within the marker not a single soul could be seen or heard.

“A spider,” Yuusei murmured, the sight beneath them passing as they drove. “But that’s never happened,” he continued with a frown, “Satellite is still safe,” the teen added, an underlying tone of 'as it ever can be’ well detected by his friend.

“So then,” Rua murmured with a swallow, “Does that make it… The future?”

It was a chilled silence that fell over them in that instant, either out of fear for answering with the truth, or of answering in denial. In the silence Jack found himself staring ahead of the duelists, at the endless stretch of track which floated over the abyss that was space and time itself. His lantern staff now leaned over his shoulder, the flame blazing within it regardless of what he wished of it.

The path stretched endlessly before them- and so. “Continue the duel,” he stated clearly, looking down to the others as they jumped.

“Continue!?” Yuusei started to protest, the twins as well looking up in shock.

The spirit merely looked forward. “Isn’t it obvious?” he continued. “There’s no way out yet; so then the only way there will be one is to finish the duel!”

The duelists below looked to each other with uneasy expressions, silent as they turned to face the field again. However in the end to their shock it was Ruka who moved first, tapping the screen for Rua to acknowledge her decision. “We set one card-”

“Two cards,” Rua corrected, his sister looking to him in shock.

“ _Two_ -!”

“We set two cards,” Rua announced clearly, looking back to Yuusei with a nod as their bike sped ahead. “And we end our turn!”

From ahead of Yuusei, Ruka’s own D-Wheel portion turned back to face him, the girl continuing for her brother. “Due to the effects of Rising Energy, Red Daemon’s attack returns to 3800,” she explained, bowing her head. “It’s your move.”

And from across the way, Yuusei nodded, before looking to the spirit beside him. “…Jack,” he started, his old friend’s form only now registering with him. The very clothes he’d drowned in, only charred and blackened at the edges with seemingly fresh soot. A large red coat he’d never seen before- and red eyes instead of violet, with skin and hair darkened as it would have been in the light of a lantern. And how it figured then that he carried one, he thought to himself as he stared. How it figured!

In the silence that persisted between them, Jack as well stared, seeming to stand on the air despite their constant movement. “…I never left, you know,” he said seriously, almost frowning as Yuusei looked to him. “Never. The first time I left Satellite was when you did,” he insisted, Yuusei merely looking to him brokenly.

“How,” he whispered, eyes twitching and looking over his friend’s form- he hadn’t 'changed’, aside from those few things. His voice, his height… Even his mannerisms, quieted as they were. Everything- “What happened to you, Jack?”

He found himself somehow unable to answer that, merely holding his stare and turning away with a snort. “Tch- What does it matter?” he decided, looking back toward the duel as he took to a more swift position of flight. “You can see me now! And you can hear me!” he added, grinning and crossing his arms as he sat in the air. “So listen!” Jack laughed. “This is a duel-! Act like it!” he insisted, his friend staring with narrowed eyes. “Show them your power!”

Yuusei lowered his head, not looking away. “…Then, the 'friend’ who gave them Red Daemon’s Dragon…”

Another snort. “How else would anyone be able to even hold Red Daemon’s!?” he insisted fiercely. “If I can’t show people his power, then let the one who took my mark do so!”

“Your-” With those words Yuusei seemed to understand much of the situation at hand, nodding and turning to face the duel ahead. “A real duel then, aah?” he 'asked’, smirking somewhat as Jack laughed.

“And nothing else!”

“Hm! My turn then!” he announced loudly, Jack taking a spot high above and between the duelists as he watched. “I activate the speed spell 'Silver Contrails’,” Yuusei began, winds erupting from the revealed card as Stardust flexed with power. “At the cost of two speed counters, a wind type monster gains 1000 ATK until the end phase! So, Stardust Dragon,” he ordered with that in mind, the twins looking back with wide eyes as the gap between the monsters was suddenly altered. “Attack, with SHOOTING SONIC!”

The fires launched forward, and the twins braced themselves for impact. However what occurred was nothing like what they or any of the others expected, and as the fires struck them they could not bear to do anything more than scream. “NGH- GH _RAAAAAAA **AAAAAAAAAA**_ -!”

“R-Rua!? Ruka!?”

Jack darted forward and behind him Yuusei as well shouted for them, the spirit hovering near them with wide eyes.

“O-Oii!” he shouted to them, his voice quieting as he came close. “Oi, what was-”

“Haahhh… Hh-Hhhhahhhh… _H-Hurts_ ,” Rua forced out, trembling in his seat as he swallowed and struggled to sit upright. “It felt… L-Like…”

“It was real,” Ruka whispered brokenly, holding herself in her seat as Jack stared. “The attack was r… Real…”

As he stared he prepared to say something more to them, but in an instant he could feel heat tearing in their direction. ’ _Jack!_ ’ he thought he could hear Yuusei shout, the blond turning to find himself faced with blinding light as he instinctively threw forth a wall of flames. ’ _Synchro Burst’s effect!_ ’

“NGH-!”

The fires slammed against that of his own, pushing him back against the air surrounding the D-Wheel. As he looked back to the yet weakened twins however he ground his teeth, grip on the lantern pole tightening as he roared and swung it back upon the attack.

“NnnnN _HHHHAAAAAAAAH-_!”

“J-Jack…” The sound of falling lifepoints met the air, and briefly the duelists looked to the screen as the trap’s effect appeared in reality. Looking back to Jack however they found themselves shocked to silence, only for the spirit to begin floating back as he looked upon the twins.

“Keep dueling!” he insisted, turning to face Yuusei with a steel resolve. “We don’t have much longer… If I must, I’ll burn every attack from both ends!” Jack continued, the response once more a shocked silence.

However with a nod, Yuusei bowed his head. “I end my turn,” he told them clearly, looking toward the twins almost with fear, or some other form of anxiety gnawing at his resolve.

“Don’t hold back!” Jack added seriously.

In response the twins looked among themselves, swallowing. They looked to their hand, and to their field, and after an unbearably endless silence they nodded and looked back. “We attack Stardust Dragon!” they announced together, pointing the dragon forward as Ruka spun back to face them. “ ** _ABSOLUTE POWER FORCE!_** ”

“Hmn-!” The dragon charged toward Yuusei, but Jack reached him long before it. And as the monsters roared a wall of flames followed, blocking the worst of the blow between dragons. “NGH- _GHHAAAGH…_ ”

“Jack!” Yuusei shouted, looking to the spirit as he struggled under the blow. Eventually the dragons relented, lifepoints depleting as Jack hovered in the air. “Jack, hey!”

“Worry about yourself!” the blond immediately protested, ignoring the pain as he darted back toward the middle. “Duel like you mean it and don’t worry about anyone else! If you lower your guard,” he warned, speaking to the twins as well now, “It’ll be your soul that shatters in the end!”

If Yuusei answered, he didn’t hear him; however it seemed that the teen looked somewhat torn at the request, nonetheless triggering a trap as he nodded. “Trap activate!” Yuusei announced, a shine of light and power arising over his Stardust Dragon as Red Eyes flexed its claws before him. “Cross Line Counter! This card adds double the damage I sustained in battle to his attack power,” he started, the dragon preparing a blast of white fire whilst Jack prepared a defense, “And allows me to attack in retaliation! Go!” he ordered, the stream launching forward to again be met with the fires of a strangely similar sort, “ ** _SHOOTING SONIC_**!”

“NG- GH _RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-_!”

“J-Jack!” “Jack-!”

“Just focus!” he snapped back, stumbling on the air as fire licked over his shoulders and arms. “Hah… Hhhah… Keep fighting!”

The twins stared- and with steeled resolve, Rua nodded, setting a card to the field. “We play the speed spell Overboost!” he started, the D-Wheel shooting ahead from where Yuusei had at last caught up, until the distance was so vast that Ruka’s back-facing form was only just visible.

“We gain six speed counters,” she continued, Jack and Yuusei both staring in mild alarm.

“They already have ten counters?” Yuusei hissed, only for the next card to appear on the field.

“Speed Spell!” Rua announced, taking the first of the few cards given to them for use with Red Daemon’s Dragon. “THE END OF STORM! When we have ten or more speed counters,” he continued clearly, searing winds beginning to blow as Jack struggled to send fires around both sides of the track, “It destroys all monsters on the field, dealing three hundred points of damage to each player for the number of monsters destroyed on their field!”

“Ngh-” The winds howled and with a swift movement Stardust scattered, only for the storm to die and fade along with it. “Stardust’s effect activates,” Yuusei countered swiftly. “If a card’s effect threatens to destroy him, I can tribute him to negate that card’s effect!”

Hm! Good move, but expected; after all, tied or not, Yuusei couldn’t afford to lose any more lifepoints- but by this point the ability of Stardust should have been obvious to the twins.

So then what- “We end our turn,” Ruka announced clearly. “So-”

“In the end phase, Stardust Dragon returns to the field,” Yuusei began, a card swinging upward from the field as he did so. “In that moment, I activate this- Meteor Stream! When a monster is special summoned to the filed within the same turn it was tributed,” he announced, stones of fire and ice both developing from the great beast’s wings, “I inflict 1000 points of damage to my opponent!”

“N _gh_ -!” Shit- Jack rushed toward the twin’s end of the field with a flaming shield at the ready, sending rock after rock back from the D-Wheel as an expected counter attack rose.

“Trap activate!” Rua shouted, red flame launching forward to pass Jack and blow the meteors toward Yuusei in retaliation. Again the blond darted across the field, lantern spinning as he attempted to lessen the 'real damage’ without thought for why. “Crimson Hell Flare!”

“While we control a monster whose attack is higher than the effect damage of a spell or trap, we take no damage,” Ruka continued curtly, “And our opponent takes twice the damage which we would, instead!”

“HrrraaA _AAAAAAAAHHHH-_!”

“Activate trap!” came Yuusei’s continued counter, Jack half wondering how long the chain would persist. “Shining Silver Force! When my opponent activates a card which would inflict damage,” he announced, Jack again shooting toward the other end of the field as the card took effect, “I negate its activation and destroy all face-up spells and traps my opponent controls-”

“TRAP ACTIVATE!”

Jack grimaced. “Ugh…”

The final card on the twins field rose up, and this time it seemed clear whose card it was. A woman in white with great fabric wings came to the field from her trap, and as Ruka spoke, the woman threw forward a commanding gesture, eyes glowing bright. “Fairy Wind!” the twins announced, the storm intensifying for both ends as Jack hurriedly threw fire up and against the winds. “We destroy all other face-up spell and trap cards on the field,” they continued, Yuusei’s eyes widening as the final counter took effect. “And for each card on the field, we take damage equal to the number of cards multiplied by 300!”

Two on one side. Two on another. The chain took full effect and the twins D-Wheel slowed almost completely, both sides finding themselves with a mere three hundred lifepoints as the effect of Overboost as well kicked in. “Hah… Hhah… _Hahh.._.” The winds died down and still the flames burned over Jack, the spirit’s grip on his lantern loosening as it came to the next turn.

The twins had one speed counter now. However as Yuusei shot ahead on eight, he turned himself around to start driving toward them. “It’s my turn!” he shouted, drawing his next card. And with only a glance it was swapped for another in his hand, the card set upon the field for its image to be revealed to all. “Final Attack!”

Ah.

Then this was it. The twins braced themselves for impact even as Yuusei began to explain the card’s effects, their counters spent and gone. “When I have eight or more speed counters, I can double the attack of one monster I control- this is it!” he announced, pointing the dragon forward as white fire built within its maw. “…Thank you for this duel,” he finished, the twins smiling back while Jack as well stared toward his friend.

Before he could say anything, the stream of sonic wind and flame came toward him, and with all he could do he erected a shield.

’ ** _SHOOTING SONIC!_** ’ he heard distantly, and as he forced the fires up and around the twins he himself became subject to blinding light and pressuring forces, lantern staff threatening to shatter within his very grip. “NGH- HHG _RAAAAAAAAA **AAAAAAAAA-**_!”

“KyraAAAAAH-!” “"Ngh-!”

- _kRREessSSHSHHHHH_ -

- **fmp** -

…

The skies were clear again.

“Ruka,” he could hear Rua crying, shaking his sister in an attempt to wake her. “Ruka, wake up! Ruka!”

“Mn… Rua…”

“Aaah- You’re okay!” the boy cried, holding his sister close as Yuusei approached them. “You’re okay!”

“I’m just tired,” she scolded quietly, smiling nonetheless. “It’s nothing to worry about…”

“Ah- but last time you said that-”

“Jack,” Yuusei started, the twins just now realizing that their opponent stood before them. As they looked beside themselves however they realized additionally that Jack himself had landed in a collapsed heap with them, breathing haggard and body trembling.

As he noticed his friend standing there however, the spirit looked upward, his eyes seeming to but briefly fade back into violet as he stared. “You can still see me,” he forced out, a pained smile coming over his face. “Heh… Don’t forget that,” he whispered, eyes closing over.

“Jack-!”

“Ahh- Jack!” the twins started, turning over to look to him in panic. “Hey, Jack, wait-!”

“You just beat the champions,” Jack rasped, voice far quieter than Yuusei had ever been used to. “…You better get out of here,” he finished, the duelist turning as the silence of the crowd finally registered with him. It was being announced now on the holographic globe in the center, and on news feeds all over- the new 'King’, the champion, 'Yuusei Fudou’.

Off to the side the two men Yuusei had been staying with recently were shouting for him, standing by his bike and waving him over frantically. 'We can’t stay here!’ they were calling, 'Let’s go!’

Briefly, he looked back to Jack, the blond somehow still conscious. “Go,” the spirit told him, breathing calming as he gave in to sleep. “…I’ll find you again, like last time.”

It was clear that Yuusei wished to ask what that meant, but there was no time to do so. Jack’s eyes closed over and the spirit at last succumbed to sleep, and so with one last look, Yuusei forced himself to flee. The twins would be carried away in hospital stretchers, Rua struggling to carry the fallen spirit that was Jack with him by pretending to simply carry his helmet in his hands.

And distantly, from regions of more northerly placement, an icy wind would begin to blow in.


	36. Chapter 36

The tunnels beneath the stadium were strangely spacious, not that they minded. As Yanagi and Himuro walked with him, it meant that there was plenty of room to search for the way out, without worry of the press or any others finding out.

His friends were safe, or so he’d been told through the screen of his D-Wheel. Complete with an ‘apology’ that he had to leave so soon, he’d been given the video of his friends being released from the confines of a storage bin in the middle of Satellite. So there was that, he supposed.

There was that.

Yanagi was still speaking- of the Signers, and of the Dragon their markings were tied to- “It seems to me that the only one we’re missin’ now would be the head!” he remarked, Yuusei nodding quietly as they walked. “Wonder who has it…”

A wonder indeed. “…Yanagi,” he asked after his thoughts stewed for a time longer, “In the matters of the Signers, where to the dead take part?”

“The- The dead!?” the old man questioned, Himuro as well staring.

“What brought that question!?”

Yuusei merely shook his head, unwilling to say anything more on the topic. “Just curious,” he instead remarked, continuing to push the bike forward. To be honest with himself it seemed as though Jack’s situation was all too unique as it was.

Yanagi and Himuro could never have answered his questions, in the end.


	37. Chapter 37

It was rather ironic how quick he recovered compared to the twins. Despite seemingly suffering the gravest wounds he had come to his senses not long after the twins had been moved from stretchers to hospital beds, able to move properly again by the time they’d settled into a guarded room in fact. By the time Rua and Ruka were able to sit up and chat with each other comfortably, it was as though Jack hadn’t been at the battle at all in fact-

Which in the end made sense he supposed, much as it stung to bring up the ‘inhumanness’ of it all.

“Mahhhh… We lost,” Rua lamented, a weak laugh escaping him nonetheless.

“We did our best,” Ruka continued. “In the end, we wouldn’t have been able to predict that card.”

Jack snorted, a smirk on his face. “Hm! Yuusei’s a master of last move turn-arounds! Besides, you were tied with him for almost the entire match!” he added almost excitedly. “A truly heated duel!”

“Aaah! You think so?!”

“Of course!”

Rua squeaked, collapsing back against his bed. “Eheeeeeeeee!”

“Hahhhh, Rua…”

“Heated duel~”

The boy’s sister shook her head, before reaching for the deck at the side. “That reminds me,” she started, taking a few cards from the side. “These belong to you,” the girl explained, Jack blinking as he took the cards and looked them over.

Crimson Hell Flare, Red Daemon’s- “AH- Y-You’re giving-”

“Red Daemon’s Dragon still wants to be with you,” Ruka explained, bowing her head as Rua nodded.

“Ruka talks to duel monster spirits-! When she says they want to do something, it’s never a lie!” the boy added, Jack briefly looking him over with wide eyes.

“I…” He looked back to the cards, before nodding as he placed them carefully in his deck.

“Neh, but Jack,” Rua started innocently. “I didn’t realize you and Yuusei were friends!”

“Did you know each other well before?” Ruka added, the blond failing to answer for a short time. “…With what happened in the duel, do you think…”

Jack swallowed, crossing his arms. “…It’s been a long time,” he admitted, “Since any of my friends could see me. Now that Yuusei can, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

There seemed to be more to these words, but what they were, the twins couldn’t tell.

So instead the blond grabbed his lantern staff from the side and opened the door to the room, heading into the hall. “I’m going to walk for a bit,” he decided. “I’ll come back before I leave,” he added, cutting short any questions he could have received.

The twins nodded and the door closed, and in that instant down the hall he watched as a nurse began to steadily walk toward the room. “Hmm?”

“Number 16, number 16,” she murmured to herself, adjusting large glasses as she gripped a notepad tight. “Can’t miss this scoop…” Scoop?!

Jack scowled, and in an instant formed at his side a small flame. “Hm! You’ll have to miss this one!” he decided, the bespectacled woman immediately entranced by the flame.

“Ah-”

The blond snorted, and soon enough a trail of flames was steadily doubling back down the hall as the woman followed, footsteps slow and steady as glazed eyes stared toward each little light. “Just keep following,” he muttered, half walking beside her as he looked about the hallways. If he didn’t lead her out she’d probably just come back after all- so better to do that than anything else really. They paused at a crossroad, the spirit looking side to side as he attempted to discern which path would be the best to take. “Mn, if I take right, the stairs are there…”

“Stop right there, fire starter.”

“MGNHH!?” The spirit jumped, flames dissipating the instant he was addressed as he looked across from him. “Who-”

“Eh-Ehh!?” Beside him the woman he’d been luring off also stiffened, initially flinching at unfamiliar surroundings before looking across the empty hall at the security officer standing there. “S-Security?”

Shit- The officer- The same from the duel against Yuusei, Jack realized, stepped closer, and as he did so a blazing violet mark could be seen upon his arm. “That spider,” Jack hissed, flinching as a ring of violet flames erupted around them all. “Tch-!”

“AAaaaaahHHHH What’s going on!” the woman beside him panicked  Jack glancing back and looking toward the hazy-eyed man before him. “Who are you!?” she asked, Ushio grinning and raising a disk upward.

“Dark Signer…” Dark-

“Liar!” Jack hissed, the officer seeming to twitch. “You’re nothing like them!” And yet that mark-

“Hahhhh… What is this, what is this-” The woman behind him continued to panic, and with the fires burning around them Jack clenched his teeth. There was obviously only one way out of this he told himself, and that was to duel. However while he had a deck, he did not have a disk, and in a duel such as this-

“Mn-” Jack cut his thoughts short as he spotted the bag at the 'nurse’s side, reaching for the duel disk without thought.

“A-AAAAHHH!” Needless to say, the woman stumbled backward, seeing naught but a disk hovering in mid air as a deck of cards was slipped in. “G-Ghost! GHOST-!”

“MN- I’m not a ghost!” he protested fiercely, only to growl after realizing he couldn’t possibly have been heard. If he didn’t do this right, this woman was probably going to get herself killed, he realized grimly. Killed, or worse, he found himself adding.

So then what to do?

He looked back to the 'not-Dark Signer’ and narrowed his eyes, before tossing the disk to the woman below, a fire alighting above it. “You’re going to fight for me,” he decided, the flame catching notice immediately. “If I can’t, then you will!”

“I…” She couldn’t hear him of course, but if he put that sort of intent in the fire, she’d get it right? The woman however did not take the same glaze-eyed appearance as when he lured or repelled others, as when he typically used such a flame. Instead it seemed a spark of life jumped within her, and as she took the disk she placed it on her arm, shaking breaths only slightly steadying as she prepared herself. It was obvious that the one before her wanted a duel- and whatever the fire was, it would help, it seemed. And so she nodded, the disk clicking into its ready position as she prepared to draw. “-Whoever you are,” she started quietly, Jack raising his eyebrows at the words. “I’ll- I’ll do my best!”

“Tch! Just do as I say and you’ll be fine!” he retorted, nonetheless quiet unheard. Even so however, he found himself somewhat at ease. At least she believed _someone_ was there in the end, he decided.

At least there was that.


	38. Chapter 38

The duel began and as the woman drew her cards it seemed to Jack that somehow the only thing the flame had done was instill a courage of sorts as opposed to mere washes of control. There was an air of will about her now, which had not been present before-

Such was evident as the duel began. ‘I summon Warm Worm in defense mode!’ their opponent shouted, the turn quickly passing to them. Lest the woman make ill use of his cards, Jack immediately lit a small flame above her hand, catching her eye and drawing it toward the monster he intended to summon.

“Vice dragon,” she murmured, reading it’s effect. It did not take long before she realized what the fires were doing, here eyes widening with the thought. “Ah- the ghost-!”

“I’M NOT A GHOST!”

She could not, of course, hear him. “I won’t let you down! Don’t worry about a thing, mister ghost!” the woman persisted, Jack scowling from beside her.

“Not a ghost,” he muttered, arms crossed in annoyance. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to feel entirely upset about the matter. To be noticed even slightly by someone who did not have magic on their side, nor the 'power’ of the undead, was strangely fulfilling in a sense- and so with that in mind, as the woman special summoned Vice Dragon, he hovered another flame above the second monster in his hand.

“I tribute Vice Dragon to summon Strong Wind Dragon in attack mode!” the duelist with him announced in reply, the fire fading but briefly whilst the cards were played. “Since Strong Wind Dragon was summoned using a Dragon type monster, his attack is increased by half the attack of the tribute!” The power raised considerably with that-

And so, Jack sent his fire forward. “Attack!” he shouted, the sound mirrored by the woman beside him. The 'warm worm’ was easily shattered of course- as its effect came back he scowled nonetheless however, watching his 'assistant’ send the top three cards of the deck to the grave. “Tch.” With one last flame, he drew her attention to still another card, before sinking it through the paper and beneath the disk.

“Mmmm. Oh!” The woman nodded. “I set one card face down!” she announced clearly, “And End my turn!”

“It’s _my_ turn,” Jack muttered at the words, only to turn as the woman began to speak.

“Woww… It’s such a strong deck you have, Mister Ghost!” Not a ghost, not a ghost- “Though, with all the fire, I guess 'hitodama’ works more?”

“I’M NOT A HITODAMA EITHER!”

“Um- I’m Carly by the way,” the woman went on, despite being entirely unable to see who she spoke to.

“Carly?” And- Hold on, she’d said his deck was 'strong’, hadn’t she? While he thought over these things, the turn of their opponent came to an end. Shield Worm in defense position, sending another card from the deck to the grave, along with one set card before Carly moved.

And she _moved_. “Alright! Strong Wind Dragon attacks!”

“WHAT-!?” Unheard as he was it was too late to pull Carly back from her move, the blond watching as the dragon launched forward toward their opponent. “ _WHAT ARE YOU DOING_!” he roared, a pillar of flame immediately shooting beside Carly as she jumped back in shock. “WE COULD HAVE-”

“AAAAAAH-!” As their opponent activated the appropriate cards for a revival, Carly panicked, looking to the slowly dimming pillar with terror in her eyes. “I’m sorry!” she hurriedly shouted, holding the duel disk and cards close. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I-” The woman swallowed, and the fire vanished completely. “I’m sorry, mister Hitodama…”

_“I’M NOT-_!” Before his flames could get the best of him he scowled, looking away. “Tch. No matter,” he decided in the end, flicking a small flame above a card in Carly’s hand. “Summon this in defense mode…”

There was no use in fretting over it now in the end. What was done was done- they would simply have to deal with what came next. With what came next however, such seeming apathy shattered, their eyes snapping toward their opponents field immediately. 'Dark Tuner’, he had called it, a slight chill meeting the air in that moment. He’d never heard of such a monster and yet there it was, its levels ripping through the flesh of the shield worm to complete a summon like none they’d ever seen.

'Dark Diviner’. With his effect in play not only did their monster lose most of his attack power, but so to did they loose a number of the cards in their deck. The monsters were equal in power, that was fortunate at least; Strong Wind Dragon couldn’t be destroyed by those of equal power, while Dark Diviner couldn’t be destroyed in battle at all. The fires that exploded between them were blocked in an instant by his own, with Carly screaming in shock and terror, and Jack himself snarling through the damage. And though he effect on their power wore off at the end of the opponent’s turn, that did not change the damage done.

This would be their last draw, Jack decided as he studied the field. There was no doubt about that, it was their last draw, and it was not likely that the force behind these physical attacks would allow them to survive longer than that. Perhaps he could withstand the blows of course, oddity that he was.

However Carly was visibly on her last legs, regardless of the determined gleam which had yet to fade from her eyes. “…I’m sorry,” she repeated quietly, a sad smile on her face. “I’m sorry, 'Mister Ghost’. I’ve really made a mess of this, haven’t I?!” A mess?

He looked away for a moment, shaking his head. “…No,” he decided, moving to place his hand on the deck. As expected, Carly’s hand passed through his own, but even so he ignored the chill it brought and continued. “No,” he repeated quietly, “You made this fun. This..” The boy swallowed, gripping the card on the deck tightly. “This is the most fun that I’ve had in a long time!” he announced, fire and heat warming the woman beside him as her will was increased yet further.

“I’ve made a mess,” she lamented quietly, gripping the card as well. “But- But I won’t give in!” Carly announced. “It’s our turn!” she continued, “'Draw’!”

“Activate 'Mind Trust’!” Jack called out alongside her, hovering a fire above the card.

“Mind…” Carly stared at the description for but a moment before nodding, biting her cheek as hindsight struck her in silence. This was what she was supposed to do last time, she thought to herself- it could have all been over back then if they had. Even so, it was nothing but hindsight. Nothing but events in the past which would not be changed. Mind Trust pulled Dark Resonator from the graveyard to their hand, and it was swiftly summoned to the field alongside the Twin Shield Defender. And as the fires rose to surround both monsters Carly stared, watching 'Exploder Dragonwing’ come to the ground before swallowing. The effect of Exploder Dragonwing- it would destroy Dark Diviner, wouldn’t it?

“Go,” Jack assured her, sending the fire forward with a surge of 'command’ rushing through it. “Attack!” Attack!

She raised her hand to do so, and in an instant, it struck her- “Not a 'hitodama’,” she murmured, watching Exploder Dragonwing charge their opponent in a rush of fire and wreckage. “It’s like the western myth… The Will-O-Wisp!”

“What…”

He thought he felt a shudder pass through him in that instant, a rush of strength that hadn’t been possible before. He turned to look to Carly with wide eyes, and in that instant, as she turned as well. “Ah-!?”

_-BROUM!_ -

The attack made its mark and as the violet flames surrounding them extinguished  the explosion launched back toward them and Jack himself flew forward, a snarling cry escaping him as his own flames leaped up in a shield. “HRAAAAAAAAAAAAA-NH-!”

The fire remained for as long as it needed-

“H-Hahhh! You-!”

Or at least as long as he remained conscious. Carly scrambled over ruin and wreckage, gathering the cards and the disk both as she came to the side of the boy which she could so suddenly see so clearly. 'Will-o-wisp’; that was what she’d decided he was, and then suddenly he was there. As though that were all it took for such a being to exist, a single person’s belief- and then he was there, and alive.

Albeit barely.

While shouts came from the least ruined areas of the hall she made her decision, hurriedly throwing his arm over her shoulder and pulling him toward a fallen gurney at the side. She would help him, just as he’d helped her, she decided in that moment. She would make certain that this 'will-o-wisp’ was thanked when he awoke, and cared for until he recovered. No matter what!

She made her decision and soon enough was driving back to her apartment, the boy loaded into the back seats as he continued to sleep away… Dreaming of nothing but warm flames as he did so.


	39. Chapter 39

By the time he was in the helicopter, he still hadn’t seen Jack again. It was worrying-but Jack had claimed to have followed him from Satellite to begin with, so the teen hoped this meant the spirit would find him again. As it were, he already had little trust in Rex Godwin’s motivations…he wasn’t about to bring up the matter of spirits that could only be seen by Signers (or at least, that was how it seemed).  
  
He had asked why he made his D-Wheel, when they spoke.  
  
Yuusei had refused to answer. He’d listened to Rex talk about the People of the Stars as Rua and Ruka had noted, and he listened to Rex speak of the tragedy that happened back when he was barely born-and each word brought greater rage until he was shouting with as much volume as he would have imagined Jack would in his place.  
  
And then Rex had brought him back. Brought him back after vaguely claiming that the fifth Signer would appear soon enough, voice barely heard over the sound of chopping blades.  
  
Yuusei just wanted it over, frankly.  
  
He hadn’t come here for this. And what he had come for in the first place, he couldn’t succeed in doing as it were.  
  
The helicopter trip was spent in silence, and he was just as quiet when he finally got off, taking a mere six steps forward before the chopper was taking off again.  
  
He had half expected Jack to appear, in that moment… …but there was nothing.  
  
Nothing but-  
  
“YUUSEI!”  
  
For a moment, he forgot he was upset enough to even grin. “Crow-!” Fists met fists, and then palms met palms in what was mere steps away from a ‘secret handshake’ as the two laughed, the younger going so far as to throw an arm over Yuusei’s shoulder in a pseudo hug. “What are you doing here?” he asked, noting the area.  
  
“Ahhh, well, I took a detour after doing a few things… …nice marker by the way,” he added dryly, the elder grimacing somewhat. “I’m surprised they let you go though, at least with that kind of a 'welcome’…”  
  
“Welcome?”  
  
It seemed that, despite where Crow resided, the younger had managed to catch a bit of Yuusei’s dueling on the TV. ’ _Champion huh?_ ’ he had laughed, and as they wheeled their bikes off, Yuusei had merely shaken his head. He had been forced, in the end, to admit to being unable to locate Bolger. ’ _All that time, and he wasn’t even there…?_ ’ Crow apologized, of all things-but Yuusei himself felt his face heat with shame as he explained even still, Crow apparently finding it no fault but that of the City’s own.  
  
They walked for some time, however. The aim was to get back to Yuusei’s place of course-back to Rally, and the others…  
  
They could only go so far in silence, though, and in the silence itself, Yuusei’s thoughts burned at his mind. Thoughts of Jack, of seeing him again…Crow hadn’t caught the duel itself, that much he already realized. He managed to spy the end-the announcements, and the close up of his face on screen. (And he had laughed, that tiny friend of his, when Yuusei immediately grimaced-because of course it would be mentioning all the attention they’d given, that would net such a response)  
  
He wanted to tell him about it.  
  
Not about the Signers necessarily-that would come obviously, but that wasn’t what he _wanted_ to talk about. But he wanted to tell him about Jack. About the look on his friend’s face, about the smile he saw, about the fire, about how he had been there and so…  
  
'Him’. So 'alive’ and the same and yet different in all these ways he couldn’t describe.  
  
How even seeing him had given him the will to carry onward, somehow. But by the time he thought to bring the words forward, they were already 'home’. By the time they were ready to send Crow back from 'home’, Security had tracked them down and Yuusei found himself blasting out of his own hide-away alongside the teen, the thought still burning like Jack’s flames.  
  
…In the end…  
  
…The duel was over, but Yuusei cut the engine, Crow turning back as he did the same. “Yuusei?” he asked, his frame too small for his seat still, and his helmet still sitting so awkwardly upon the other’s head.  
  
Yuusei was quiet, and slowly, he brought out the courage to speak. “…Crow. …There’s something I need to tell you. …Something I can’t say in front of the others,” he added softly.  
  
And Crow, hearing the other’s tone, merely took off his helmet to nod.


	40. Chapter 40

When he woke up, the woman from before was there. She was sleeping-fast asleep at her desk, her computer still stuck on the last thing she’d been looking at (’…Jack o Lantern,’ he muttered, before grumbling). He’d decided not to wake her-instead pulling the door open and moving to head off immediately.

He was not so fortunate in his efforts to leave, however.

Carly had been doing research for many hours while he slept-the boy that appeared the moment she’d said ‘Will-o-Wisp’, the boy with fire, who had (she was certain) saved her life… Will o Wisp was no doubt connected to him. After all, why else would he have appeared the moment she said it? But it was also a mouthful, and quite frankly a mouthful that was tricky to say.

More importantly, it was a phenomenon in the world that left her confused as to the boy’s intentions.

Will-o-Wisps, Fairy Lights, and even the fires as carried by figures known as 'Jack of the Lantern’, they were known world wide as curious instances of flame now associated for the most part with swam gas and other chemical imbalances in the air. But in the past, they had been seen as real, and more importantly as _bad_. Flames that led mere travelers astray and to their doom, flames that belonged to the devil themself-they did not describe the fires as she had seen them that night, she thought as she’d fallen asleep, and it left her wondering why. _Why_ …

She woke up to the sound of her window opening however, and- “EHHH!? W-W-wAIT!!!”

And the boy was gone.

There was something to be said about being able to see him however, and it was this.

Despite the time it took her to rush out to her car and start driving, he was _ludicrously_ easy to find. She couldn’t say for sure why, of course, but…

_'You see me?’_

…She wondered if he just wasn’t used to being followed at all.

Jack wandered to a number of places, under her eye. He flew above with great speed, speed enough that if it wasn’t for her wild guess that he was heading for the coastline each time, she would have assuredly lost him. As it were, she found herself paying for a number of toll booths and even an amusement park ticket just to keep an eye on him-her glasses shining in the sunlight as the boy peered from up the top of a ferris wheel, the peak of a roller coaster, the tower of a bungee jump-

“AH!?”

“Watch it, Nagisa..!” …Annnnnd of course Angela was here. And Angela was frowning, as well. “….Wait, Nagisa? Seriously? What are you doing here, don’t you have a story about cats in trees to be writing?” she snorted, the other merely blushing furiously in embarrassment.

“I already have my article written for the next paper..!” she lied quickly. “And…And what about you! What sort of scoop are you writing about here..!?” It was a bit nerve-wracking, to be snipping back at her superior like this-but she was doing it, and somehow the more she spoke the more confident in the action she got.

Somehow, it felt as if this made Angela pleased if anything. The woman looked mildly impressed even, as if perhaps the paper’s latest hire _wasn’t_ going to waste themselves on dreams of grandeur. She jerked her head to the side. “I’m meeting an informant,” she replied lazily, before frowning again. “And if you’re not careful, you’ll give us up-it took us _ages_ to book this meet up,” she warned. “And I’ve been following Arcadia for _months_.”

“Arcadia..?” She took a moment to let the word sink in. “Ah, you mean the organization that Aki Izayoi-”

“What did I just say..!” Angela hissed, and Carly clammed up quickly. That was, however, the most they spoke of-just as Angela herself prepared to say something, Carly watched as a familiar cloak of red shot down from the latest tall coastline feature to the ground, and then off to the side.

“AHHH-! Shoo-t!”

“Shoot?! …OII! Nagisa! Where are you going..!?” the woman called, watching as the girl hurriedly bolted after 'nothing’. “NAGISA..!!” In the end, Angela had to just sigh. “Hahhh, forget it… …I have more important things to do…”

Whatever important things were, it didn’t matter. The fact was.

Her article was not written.

Angela was chasing after a far larger, more important scoop that under normal circumstances would have Carly _begging_ to hear more and in turn receiving nothing but 'Learn to find your own stories!’ in reply.

But instead of hunting down 'Arcadia’ (maybe later), or anything else (it probably would have been a cat in a tree, if she was LUCKY)…

“…Jack.”

She was here.

“….You…?”

It was a tall tower-a look out point, built to overlook the sea. Strategically so, however…

You could not see Satellite from here, and it was with that understanding in mind that she spoke. “…You… …You’re from Satellite, aren’t you?”

The question seemed to catch Jack as off guard as being seen at all, or even being addressed by name. The boy’s eyes were wide, and from where he had originally been scowling and preparing to take off again… …He stepped down from the rail to stare. “…How did you know my name?” he first choked, before looking to the woman’s arm. “How… …How can you see me?” he questioned a little more loudly, “You’re not a Signer..! …You’re not even a 'Dark Signer’,” he observed, shaking his head. “You…”

“…You’re 'Jack of the Lantern’, right?” Carly instead replied, and in that instant, Jack’s face grew dark and stony. He turned, and- “W-WAIT..!! Don’t leave, please..!!”

“If you want me to stay here then don’t say things like that..!” the boy retorted, Carly left blinking in shock.

“B- But I thought I was right, you even turned when I said Jack-”

“Because my name is Jack!!”

“But then, Jack of the-”

“IT’S JACK ATLAS!” he roared in reply, fire briefly blossoming on his arms. And in reply to that, Carly went quite silent, watching as the boy before her shook. “It’s not 'Jack of the Lantern’, it’s not ‘ _Will of the Wisp’_ ,” he hissed, the particular shift from mere Will-o-wisp catching Carly’s attention. “It’s Jack ATLAS..!”

Atlas…

It wasn’t a name that she recognized. But she nodded all the same. “…Atlas, then,” she spoke aloud, swallowing. “…I wanted to thank you. …You saved my life, right?” Carly added, the boy frowning. “Even though I couldn’t see you…or even hear you..!” Jack merely took those words and looked away, as if denying something unsaid. “I don’t know why that changed, but…”

But he did.

And in a sense, she had a feeling she knew why as well.

But she decided not to say as much. “…You didn’t say if I was right, about Satellite,” she instead noted, watching as Jack flinched. “…You know… …You can’t see it from here,” she said quietly.

“It’s not about seeing it,” he retorted, and he looked back to the water, watching as the distant waves moved back…and forth…and back… …And he shuddered, to such an extent that Carly found herself wondering if she _should_ leave. “…Between here, and there, is all this water…and I can’t even cross it.”

Couldn’t he? “…But…you can fly, can’t you?” she asked, coming closer to the rail and leaning against it beside him.

To that, Jack snorted bitterly. “…I can fly on heat,” he muttered. “…The water doesn’t have heat in it.”

She couldn’t deny that. It was true after all-and there would hardly be any boats to move back and forth, back and forth…

“…I promised my friend, I would follow him. …I promised I would help them, since they didn’t have the power to help themselves,” he muttered, clutching his staff tight. “Everything I’ve protected could be destroyed by that MARK,” he screams, turning to Carly as she jumps. And the boy’s face streaks with fearful tears, flowing like nothing even Jack has ever experienced.

Because in all his existence in this state, only one thing had ever scared him nearly so much, and even This surpassed that.

Carly stares, thinking back to the mark she saw on her opponent’s arm-“…The spider…” she murmurs, remembering abruptly what the man had said. “AH-then he was a Dark Sig-”

“No.” Jack practically pouts as he looks back over the rail. “…They were behind it, but… …Dark Signers are different. They _feel_ …. …TCH! It’s pointless..!” he snaps, hopping onto the railing. “…After all I claimed..! After all I was going to do..!”

“…Why can’t you just fly over them, then?” Jack flinched at her words, but before he could snap again, Carly nodded seriously. “…Jack. ….Your fire… …it gave me strength, back there, you know? It was why I followed you here, to thank you..! …Jack… ….You might not have heat from the water, but… …You have heat in your heart, don’t you?”

It sounded corny. Even stupid, almost, and yet-

“Like a dragon, right? You have the fire to protect them..! So why not use that fire to fly across, and keep doing that..!?”

The boy was stunned, for a few moments. He had been looking, for some way already, of course. Some way to fly high above his typical limits, and use that momentum to carry himself over. He couldn’t find it-yet the more Carly spoke, the more her sheer _faith_ pounded in his ears…

’ _You’ll never get believers like that_ ’, Frost had said back then. And somehow…he knew what he meant now.

..So this was what it was like, wasn’t it?

To be _believed_ in, in such a sense beyond friendship and bonds.

… “…My own fire, huh…”

Carly’s own face slowly widened into a large smile, and with a single nod, it seemed she cemented things. “Right! …Use that fire to protect everyone you care about, Jack..! …Become the Jack Atlas you want everyone to see, and fly over there!”

He wondered if even Carly knew what she was saying. If she was just fishing for her own words to give him comfort, but…

With a laugh, and a grin, Jack found he couldn’t care. “HMM! Then I’ll do that, and more than that..! Just wait,” he laughed, hopping off the balcony to hover, “Soon…you’re going to see my fire all the way from here, even when it’s burning from Satellite..!”

Carly couldn’t doubt that, somehow. And as Jack tore off into the air and vanished far, far above, she found herself placing a hand over her heart, as though Jack’s fire was still there in front of her.

She had no article, she had no scoop…just a few words, just Jack’s words, and…

“…I’ll follow you there, to see it up close,” she determined, speaking to nothing but the wind. And to at least herself, it seemed, the will to push forward burned brilliantly in her heart.

She had nothing at all, save words…and his Fire.


	41. Chapter 41

“….So. ….Fire, huh.”

They had been quiet for some time after he broke the news. To the point where when Crow had said ‘come on, we’re keeping your friends waiting’, Yuusei wasn’t sure the other believed him. They had fallen into chatter about more mundane things-legends of bridge builders, of the ones who had driven away from their hell, and moved on.

Until the kids began to add in their own legends.

_'What about the firelights?_ ’ they had asked, wide smiles on their faces. And to their surprise, it was Rally who had replied, the boy’s eyes wide. ’ _You mean…the winter fires?_ ’ he had asked, and when the elder ones pushed, more and more came out about them. About the wisps of flame that kept everyone warm through the bitter cold, but more importantly…

“Aah. Fire.”

…Rally claimed that when he had met the others-met Blitz, Nerve, and Taka, he had been led there by a warm and encouraging flame. The children, as well, spoke of fire trails that would appear just before cliff edges and other dangers, warning them away. A warm, precious flame…

They had left it at that, Crow and Yuusei finding themselves uncomfortable as they settled for sleep. It was rather chilly-'they’re late with the fire’ the children had muttered, but soon enough everyone was in bed…

…And as Yuusei tried to leave to deal with the battles he knew would be coming, Crow joined him.

“…You spoke seriously, so I knew you couldn’t have been lying,” Crow murmured in reply as they moved, “But I…”

But it was hard. Visions of the flaming letter at the end of the bridge lurked in his mind, and he could not tear those thoughts away. The pair pushed their bikes into the dark, and Crow chewed his lip, before finally they were far enough to drive for 'Old Momentum’ at a proper speed. “Aah. Even if it’s true, it’s too much to take.” That Jack was 'alive’. That Jack was _there_ , that Jack was-

“…All this time,” Crow whispered, shaking his head. There were tears dotting his eyes, and he gave a pained laugh. “All this time, and he’s been looking after them!? That selfish moron, doing something so selfless?!”

What else could he have done, that was a question in the air, but it was easier to marvel. Easier to think…

’ _How incredible_ ’.

“How incredible…” All that was missing now, then, was… “Now all I’m missing is the _fire starter._..”

Kiryu.

Yuusei’s mark began to glow, and as both Crow and Yuusei screeched to a stop, their eyes widened with horror.

And there was no doubt in their minds, just what Kiryu meant when he said 'Fire Starter’.


	42. Chapter 42

He soared with vigor, to start. The sun shining brilliantly even in the crisp autumn air, and the cold of the water far, far below him. He flew, and Satellite sat across in his sights, slowly darkening sky bringing them closer and closer to the night. It had been near sunset when he left-the dying rays around him however were as blinding as his fires, and he could feel their warmth even now.

The sun set however, and he realized that he’d overstepped his bounds. “Hahh-” He was falling.

“HAHHh-!! AAAAAHH-!!” He was falling and there was nothing, nothing at all, to-

“Well would you look at that!”

“GLKH-”

A stick hooked on his coat, and abruptly he was being tugged along by a familiar wash of cold, the pair launching higher and higher into the air as Frost laughed. “Weren’t you going to never leave Satellite? Man, are you far from home..!” the spirit sang, his friend merely sputtering from the other’s grip.

“Th- There’s a good reason..!! And what are you doing here anyway, you’re early!!”

“Whaaaat, can’t visit before Christmas anymore?” Frost countered, grinning. “I just heard that something big was going on…maybe you could use a hand?”

“I’m fine on my own..!!!” Came the expected protest, and Frost merely continued to laugh, even as they began to come over Satellite’s shores. “And how come your friends can’t come then?” he snapped, “I even saw one of them just a while ago..!”

Before Frost could answer, Jack noticed something…odd. Frost’s eyes followed where his own went, but they followed with a glaze to them, an ill seeming light that spoke of an incident long, long ago. In the distance, something purple shined… And looking back and forth, he realized with a cold spike of horror that they were beginning to fall again.

“Hey,” he shouted, gripping the other’s staff as the tables were turned. “HEY!! What are you doing!” Frost would not respond-in fact it seemed as if he was _frozen_ , somehow being taken by…something. And around them he could see lights of violet shooting through the air, all collecting toward one place…

…Despite himself, he hauled Frost up and forced them to follow. Forced them to follow until finally they crashed, the blond groaning and gasping.

“Ghh….what the hell-”

_‘hAAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAA!’_

All his attention for Frost-the spirit giving wheezing sounds that were half-way to words but not quite-was cut, as laughter broke over the air. And with wide, terrified eyes, Jack turned to see something he had dreaded ever seeing again.

_'You can’t kill a dark signer’_

_'Perhaps you can return when the dark signers are gone’_

_'The Signers must face the Dark Signers-’_

All the statements of fate were closing in, and as Jack stared at the duel below, his eyes moved upward to what was rising far above.

And as the giant itself rose up from the field, he swore that for just one bitter moment he was drowning again.


	43. Chapter 43

Kiryu loomed above them like the shadow of death he very much represented in their eyes, and as the words fire starter hissed upon the air, the two with their d-wheels grimaced, faces stretched with wide eyes and set jaws in added horror. There was no hiding who it was that Kiryu referred to, of course-not when they had just been speaking of the spirit who brought fire through Satellite. But to see Kiryu in the flesh was the last thing they had ever expected, and to hear that they had _met_?

At the very least, both of them already knew that the mark Kiryu bore on his arm meant nothing good…but from below on the hill, Yuusei forced himself to at least try to speak to his long dead friend. “…Kiryu,” he started, and as a mad grin came across the other’s face, he felt a shudder pass through the air.

“So, you remember my name still!” Kiryu sneered, the words vibrating with his very body. “I’m touched..! ….You know, I used to think that it was all you two, who brought me to where I am… …but while you may have betrayed me back then,” he hummed, voice darkening, “ _It’s nothing compared to what he did…_ ”

Crow couldn’t help himself. “..You mean Jack?” he shouted, and in an instant, Kiryu’s grin fell. With a hiss, he drew back, pulling from his cloak a riding helmet.

“HNN! I should have known YOU would know him!” he snarled, memory filled with fire. “That day you left… …He was there too after all, with that _FIRE._.!”

“What..?” Neither of them remembered of course. Not at first. But there was no time for that, and as Kiryu slid down the side of the trash heap, they realized there was something hidden at the side of it.

A D-Wheel, specifically.

“I’m not the same as back then, Yuusei..!” the man taunted, trash scattering as the engine roared. And lest they be run over, the two hurriedly pulled their own bikes to the side, watching as Kiryu bolted past them to stop again. His arm glowed a brilliant violet-and the ground as well began to do the same, swiftly forming a massive track into the ground. “I’m not as w _eak_ as I was then…I won’t be so easily FOOLED by your tricks!” he hissed, and the pair who had watched his initial descent to madness merely gawked.

“Kiryu, we were never tricking-”

“You have the mark of a Signer, Yuusei? Then that makes this even easier..!” he laughed, the boys looking to Yuusei’s arm as the tail gleamed brilliantly. “Now I can have my vengeance AND the vengeance of my god’s..!”

There was no sense in arguing with the man, as it seemed.

So while a horrified spirit watched from the side, Yuusei grimly set out to duel the second memory of the past to appear before him.


	44. Chapter 44

The duel did not go well.

Not at all. Yuusei had faced a ‘pawn’ of Kiryu’s before, apparently-but this battle was nothing like that, and as Kiryu vowed to send him and all the others to hell, Jack found himself afraid that he would watch that very thing occur before his eyes. The mark seemed to stab into his very being the more he watched however…and at his side, it felt as if Frost was growing farther and farther away, his breathing faint, and losing its familiar chill. It was frightening-he could feel his own heart racing, if anything, panic rising with the sound of Kiryu’s laughter, and then finally-

Red fire surrounded them, and he swore Frost looked a little more alive despite the heat. “J…Jack…” the spirit wheezed, and while Jack grimaced, he somehow felt relieved.

If only for a moment, at least.

A moment later and he could hear Kiryu’s voice like a roar over the air, the boy turning as he watched the bikes approach along the track. “YOU..!” he snarled, rage flickering over his visage before he finally howled with laughter. “OHHHH! WHAT A SATISFYING REUNION, THEN..! NOW EVERYONE CAN WATCH AS I SEND YOU TO HELL, YUUSEI..! And right after that…” he chuckled, the giant looming above, “ _WE CAN SEE THE FIRESTARTER BURN UNDER MY OWN FLAMES.._.”

He couldn’t hear anything, from there. It was as if his own fire was drowning out the sounds, the screaming, the protests…the shouts from Yuusei for him to flee, the shouts from Crow, confused screaming asking where he was, what was going on…

…Ah… ….so he’d…told him, then…

( _But he couldn’t see him, not like Carly had, not like-_ )

“Jjj…Jaaaac...k…” He turned as Frost’s hand managed to clutch at his boots, and Jack’s eyes widened. The spirit’s hand felt _warm_ , more than anything, warm and yet _dead_ as if-

“Tch…” Ccapac Apu was reaching for Yuusei-but all he could do was glance back, and grab his friend. “I’LL COME BACK FOR YOU!” he shouted, Yuusei nodding even with eyes of fear. He needed to get Frost out of here, away from the duel, away from Satellite _AWAY FROM HERE-_ “I PROMISE YOU..!” Jack road, kicking off the ground. “ _I’LL COME BACK..!_ ”

He did not look back.

He almost wondered if escape would become impossible, if he had. But as the duel came to its end, and as Crow ran for his friend, shouting, the redhead would catch sight not only of the brief burst of red fire that had appeared from behind the junk piles in the area, but what resembled a _comet_ even-a rocket of flame, blasting as fast and as far from the area as it could.

And in his mind, he wondered…

If that was Jack… …Why couldn’t he help them _now?_


	45. Chapter 45

He flew as fast and as far as he could, but in the end the ocean was still the ocean.

“NGHH…KHHH… HANG ON..!” he wailed, clutching Frost’s limp form as he flew, even while his height decreased. The dark clouds above were starting to thin as they left Satellite’s area, but the water was what was taking his attention, and his eyes were wet with the tears of fear. “HANG ON…WE…. WE’LL MAKE IT,” he cried, even knowing how close failure was. They had to get there…He had to be able to get them just a little further ( _but he would drown he would drown he would drown again_ ), just a little more- ( _he could see his reflection, red, black, and gold-_ )

The gold was more than just his hair.

“GKH-” Sand caught him. Sand carried him up into the isle-ship in the clouds, drawing back as the darkness from Satellite seemed to even try closing in toward them. He didn’t realize it until now, honestly, but he was shaking. Shaking violently as he tried to regain his breath, and Frost was faring no better while the Sandman hurriedly moved as far inland in Neo Domino as they could.

In his mind, he had wondered ’ _why didn’t they help_ ’.

Watching this now, he had a bitter feeling about ‘why’.

The condition Frost was in, had nothing compared to the feeling he himself had. He, at least, was able to move, fly, make _FIRE_ …

But as Jack Frost slowly regained what made him _him_ , all Jack could think of was how for a bare moment…he was warm. Lukewarm to the touch, like a freshly dead corpse.

And as the island of sand hovered far into the air, the trio sat in their own islands of silence, none of them wishing to address the terror they had so narrowly escaped.


	46. Chapter 46

Arcadia. Otherwise known as the Arcadia movement, it had been relatively easy to obtain information on the matter when she applied a bit of logic; Aki Izayoi was the first obvious lead outside asking Angela for tips (and asking Angela was straight out, for rather obvious reasons), so finding out more about Aki herself would theoretically lead her there.

All it took was bribing an old friend with a particularly rare figurine, and she had her ticket in.

It was not a ticket she expected.

It was not a ticket she expected to be able to use, either. There was something pushing her along-not by force, but perhaps instead ‘will’. Desire, _courage_ , she might even have said. She had a goal-and with a renewed fire in her heart, she snatched at any thread within her sights to get there, no matter how impossible it seemed. She didn’t need to ride off the back’s of another’s talents. She had her own! She could do this! She could-

_’….there is misfortune in your future…’_ Misty Lola had told her, encountering her in the lobby of her own condo building when the reporter attempted to request entry. _’…I can read it, in your face…You should be careful.’_

They’d had tea. It was strange-and, feeling herself tactful for the moment, Carly did her best to keep from falling into the conversation of an interview. As a result, they found themselves talking of curious things while they came to know each other however-the idea of psychic duelists and spirits had left Carly curiously quiet at various moments in time after all, and such spans of silence were soon replied to with unspoken understanding or even empathy.

In their own ways, they had both been touched by something else, perhaps, something not quite of that world.

_'My door will always be open,_ ’ Misty had told her as she’d left. A strange statement, for a stranger. But then stranger things had been happening these days, and in her fire-filled haze, she could not be worried.

Misfortune would not come. She was certain of it. She was _certain_..!

The brother of Misty who had been tied to Arcadia had been killed by Aki Izayoi’s power-that, Misty was certain of.

Rather than discover more about such an attack however, Carly’s slip into their own building unearthed something far greater than that.

Before she could realize how much greater, it was all too late though.

“ **Child…you who fell seeking answers against the hands of the dragon…Do You Desire Life?** ”

Before she could even know, her back was being pressed against glass, the sound of cracking meeting her ears as she struggled to breathe.

“I… _I_ …”

Before she could think of anything else, she thought…

_'I want to see him again…’_

And in an instant, the once warm flame in her eyes became Black.


	47. Chapter 47

The Sandman, mute as he was, was more than expressive enough for Jack to knew what he was thinking. Be it through sand floating above the being’s head, or his expressions on their own, it was enough.

And right now, the Sandman was worried. Frost took some time to recover, but the recovery at least was ‘quick’. Within about ten minutes of being outside the region of Satellite, the spirit was regaining his proper chill, and by 15 he was able to speak again with rasping undertones alongside them. Jack, for his part, was in all physical senses fine.

Mental, of course, was another story. The sight of the giant was still burned into his mind, along with the heartstopping sound of Kiryu’s mad laughter, and it was not until the Sandman nudged his shoulder with a hand that he could pull himself from those thoughts. “Ngh-!”

It’s okay, the Sandman seemed to say-he pulled his hands back, and gently bowed his head, a quiet smile on his face. It was ok…

Even saying that however, (or not saying, as it were), Frost merely swallowed. “…Who was that?” he asked once he regained his bearings, the trio floating above the city in the dark. “…The one with those…eyes,” he managed, Jack raising his brows.

“…You saw that?” he asked, and Frost nodded. Jack, from there, looked away with a grim expression, swallowing. “…I didn’t think…” …Well. He supposed Frost had been _conscious_ for some of the match, but…there wasn’t much else they could have done, right? They’d left so soon…leaving his friends behind, to face the thing Kiryu had become on their own…

He ground his teeth, and squeezed his eyes shut, and Frost re-stated his question.

“…Who was he, to you..?” he asked instead, and Jack’s voice was quiet.

“…He was my friend,” Jack whispered. “…We were a team, before…” …Before he died went unspoken, and the Sandman seemed to even bite his lip as the implications fell in. But there was more-and so Jack explained. “…He lost himself before, though. Not in the way I did,” he added, a rare admittance of weakness from when he had first died. “…He went too far, and wouldn’t go back. So…”

For a moment, horror passed over Frost’s face-but the Sandman, ever filled with faith, gave him a frown, merely looking back to Jack and nodding. Somehow, the look was enough to keep the words flowing.

And so flow they did. “…I couldn’t visit him in Security’s Prison,” he said, looking away from the pair once again. “…Maybe if I had… …Maybe then I would have known something was wrong..! But instead, by the time I did, he was already gone… …He was already dead,” Jack finished, and though confused, Frost kept his voice low.

After all, he had already wondered for a moment if this 'Kiryu’ could have been beyond the grave. “…How though?” he questioned. “I… _Felt_ what he was,” he half laughed, the sound broken and rasping. “I _know_ what I felt, it was… _wrong_ , it wasn’t even like _Pitch_ ,” he protested, looking to the Sandman as he struggled to put his feelings to words.

Jack didn’t know who Pitch was, of course-but he knew what Kiryu was at least, and so he slowly reached down toward his ankle to pull the cuff of his jeans up. Wrong…Wrong was a good way to put it. “I don’t know how,” he answered, revealing the scar that he had carried since their 'reunion’. An angry, tainted hand was revealed to the pair, and as the Sandman took a step back in revulsion, Frost merely gagged in shock. “…I don’t even really know why. …But I know what he is,” he finished, eyes slowly narrowing with a mix of rage and despair both.  
  
What Kiryu was, in a sense, was death. But as for himself…

“..And whatever it is, I’m the opposite of it.”  
  
…Even he didn’t know.


	48. Chapter 48

What was the opposite of it, a Dark Signer? Theoretically it would have been a Signer itself. He’d talked about that of course-how Kiryu, and a few others he’d briefly spotted in Old Momentum had seen him, with their blackened eyes. How the Signers, marked with birthmarks that he had once carried, could do the same-including Yuusei now as it seemed.

He spoke of how according to the twins, it seemed they were fated for battle…and he spoke of the spider he had seen carving itself into a vision of Satellite, of the man bearing its mark that he and Carly had encountered. …And as he mentioned Carly…

…He grew quiet. He went as far as using his fires to guide her-that much made sense to the others. After all, anyone could see his flames. So of course, if he could not be seen himself, he would use that.

But Carly had seen him. _Really_ seen him. And…

“…What does it _mean_ … ..being believed in?” he found himself asking, seemingly out of the blue as he told his tale. He was calmer now-speaking of the past seemed to have such an effect, and even Frost seemed far healthier than before. But while the Sandman and Frost looked to each other, preparing some way to explain, an explosion threw them off guard, a shudder passing through the air. Where they had once seemed so calm, fear flashed over all of their faces, and pulling themselves to their feet, they looked to the far end of Neo Domino with growing shock.

The sand that the Sandman had drifting to minds in the distance quite suddenly was _falling_. It was no corruption as with Pitch Black, creating nightmares and terrors of the mind. It was merely a failure-a refusal to exist, as if anything touched by the moon was becoming rejected. Sandy’s eyes widened, and as the trio watched, a great flaming mark began carving itself into the earth…

“Those marks…”

“Th…” Dark Signer. “NO..!” Without thinking, Jack launched himself from the sand to fly forward, Frost shouting as he left.

“N- HEY! JACK, WAIT!”

The boy did not seem to hear him, and if he did, he ignored the spirit-he shouted only to himself, thinking only of his flight away from the ‘Giant’ in Satellite. He’d left them behind, that time-but he only knew of three other Signers, and with the chances of at least two of them being the twins who had helped to bring his dragon to the playing field again, he could not stand idle once more. “NOT AGAIN!”

“JACK!! WE CAN’T-”

Frost’s cries fell on deaf ears, and as the Sandman hurriedly pulled the ice spirit back lest a repeat of earlier events occur, the pair watched as red and gold slowly disappeared into the distance.

And as, before their very eyes, a _second_ mark appeared over the first.


	49. Chapter 49

He was too late. With a frustrated and panicked shout blended into one, he had been blown back by the force of a crumbling building, the former ‘Arcadia’ headquarters crashing to the ground. Ruins of concrete, rebar, glass, and more now stood before him-and as his ears rang, he forced himself to stand nonetheless.

Everything passed in a daze. He could make out the shapes of people who were called in for medical aid-he could see the shadows of anyone who had still been in the building, alive or otherwise…Jack stumbled as he walked, fatigued by both the residual aura of the Earthbound Gods that had been there moments before, and the force of the explosion that had rocked him to his very core. What was he doing now..? There was nothing here, and yet he moved forward. There was nothing left from what occurred, and yet he moved…

_crk_

“…Jack…”

When Frost himself arrived, Jack was not moving. He merely stood there, holding something glass in his hand-something that looked a bit like glasses, Frost realized as he saw them more easily. The blond was silent-and Frost swallowed, taking a step closer. He felt far stronger now, with the gods 'gone’. There was still a sensation of unease, but at the very least he was his usual self when it came to the important things. Frost, speed, flight…

…Mood…

“…She  _saw_  me,” Jack whispered as he came nearer, and Frost froze. It had, after all, taken him  _hundreds_  of years before such a thing happened. And Jack? Jack had only existed for a few years within his own life time. Perhaps it was a Signer then? He had mentioned that earlier, the Signers being able to see him, so-

“Jack,” Frost repeated, swallowing. “….We can’t stay here, we need to-”

“She  _SAW_  me!” Jack shouted back to him, hand clenching around the glasses. “Without any help from markers, or dragons, or…” The boy choked-and if tears were gathering in his eyes, Frost wouldn’t have been surprised. “She was the first one to see me, and now she’s  _GONE_!”

Frost could not find the words for his friend. They were standing in wreckage as medical and survival help swarmed outside, and there was nothing he could think to say. To be seen was…well. Had it been any other time, he could have perhaps been  _jealous_  of Jack. A mere few years, and he had a believer? That was wonderful! It had to be, considering the shift Jack had taken in his methods over the last few months.

But just as quickly that was taken. Taken, presumably, by the feud of those bearing marks, those who could somehow see Jack without even knowing he  _existed_. And that…

“….Stop following me, Frost,” the blond said coldly, and Frost was pulled from his daze with shock.

“ _What?_ ”

“…I said don’t follow me!” he snapped, before looking away with a set frown. “…I need to finish this, properly. ….And if you come,” he finished, slipping the glasses into his pocket before vanishing into the ruins, “…You’ll only become a liability.”

Frost couldn’t even bring himself to feel insulted, as Jack left. The shock in the air simply pinned him on the spot, until it was too late to do anything more than just fly away-unable to feel anything more than a crippling despair and uncertainty for what would come of this.


	50. Chapter 50

While he searched, he found others. The twins, somehow-the twins who had come to speak with Aki only to find themselves watching a deathmatch, one side filled with darkness in their heart and the other merely bitterly confused as to what was going on at all. The latter, of course, survived the mess…

…But Aki was unconscious all the same, and therefore it was Aki being strapped to a hospital bed and monitored in a white room shortly after.

The twins had trouble trying not to speak to him for most of the trip-and as it was, he followed only because he did not know where to start on his hunt. For all that he had made his declaration, he had little-and without Frost, he could not fly back to Satellite on his own. He needed another way…

…But no matter what he thought, he could not make ‘this’ his way.

They needed Yuusei-that much he had determined, and that much he decided upon as he looked to them. And after telling the twins, the two of them formulated some series of excuses to pass the message to the Senator on themselves.

They would not be coming, of course…but that was fine. The Senator boarded his personal chopper, and Jack moved to sit on one of the empty seats inside, taking care not to let anyone pass right through him.

They needed Yuusei.

He could only hope that Yuusei was well enough to respond to the 'call’.


	51. Chapter 51

While Yuusei was tended to by the doctors, Crow was left to his thoughts for some time. First-there was Martha. The woman kept herself remarkably composed all things considered, but it was clear that the sight of her two remaining ‘sons’ in such a state was heart-wrenching to her. Forget the fact that she hadn’t seen the two-it was that and then more, and in the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think that for all the fears and worries she’d had, they had never listened until they came true.

Jack was gone.

…Or as good as.

He swore to return, but after explaining that he had kids to look after, Martha grudgingly let him leave. Yuusei was in good hands-the doctor that Martha brought in would know what to do. In the meantime however he had others to chase, and in the meantime his thoughts clouded.

He had seen fire-fire that, supposedly, belonged to Jack. What else could it mean after all, when Kiryu began raving about the firestarter that appeared, and Yuusei screamed for an old friend to run?

Part of him felt bitter-bitter that Jack had apparently listened, taking off into the air as he did. Yet another wondered  _what could he have done?_

Crow ground his teeth and set his jaw, before focusing on his drive back home. He didn’t know-he didn’t know what to do, or what to think…

“Mhn?” But then perhaps that could wait. Eyes narrowed, Crow watched as a copter tore through the air, headed further and further toward the BAD area. Helicopters so soon after all that ruckus couldn’t be good, right? Certainly not near BAD area, where they had only recently encountered Kiryu…

He didn’t know what to think on Jack. Perhaps later he would.

For now however, Crow revved the engine and contented himself with chasing after his other lead.


	52. Chapter 52

By the time they had arrived, Yuusei was awake. The senator had come out to speak with Martha and request Yuusei’s presence-the pilot themself guided by firelight as Jack realized numbly that in all actuality, no one else in the aircraft knew where Yuusei would  _be_. If he had to hazard a guess though, Jack figured that his friend would need to recover with medical care, and recover as far from the track as possible.

There was only one place in the world he could think of that worked for that, and that was where they landed now.

He waited outside quietly. He waited, waited until the Senator encountered a roused Yuusei, until both the politicians and Yuusei himself came out-until the latter looked toward him only for Jack to hurriedly shake his head and demand silence.

There could be no speaking while in the presence of others. None at all.

It took until they had landed, and until Yuusei quietly requested directions to the washroom for an initial moment, before they could.

“…You didn’t tell her,” he noted, though his voice somehow lacked any trace of accusation. Jack merely looked to the ground for a moment, unable to bring himself to reply. “…Jack,” Yuusei pressed, only to stare at the snappish reply he received.

“How could I, if she won’t hear me?!” Jack hissed, and only then did Yuusei note that the boy’s eyes appeared swollen with tears. Tears long wiped away, yes-but tears all the same. “…You, those kids…and that girl… ..other than ‘Dark Signers’, you’re the only ones who’ve seen me that aren’t the  _same_  as me,” the boy growled, and Yuusei frowned at the revelation of the latter.

After all- “…Others?”

Jack chose not to answer-instead he looked ahead toward the door, where the Senator was now coming in to ask if he was done. Wisely choosing to say nothing, Yuusei nodded, and followed.

He could not help but notice Jack holding something when he glanced back, however. Something…glass.


	53. Chapter 53

She was so  _angry_ , this woman. Aki awoke not long after Yuusei came near her, but her anger was relentless, and the monsters she summoned as real as Jack himself. In fact, it was Jack she attempted to attack first-but Yuusei stood between her and him, and while her parents watched in confusion, new targets came into being. She lashed and she lashed, and she snarled at all she could, but it was for naught-

And it ended in broken tears as her powers managed to protect someone instead of smashing them into the dust.

Relief was in the air-but it was a tense sort, one that was filled with stares of distrust when she passed him. It was a relief that only lasted so long, as well, for not long after the secretary for the twin’s actions came into the room to request all of the signers follow. And, well…

What choice did he have, but to do the same? There was no benefit to wandering alone, as far as he was concerned. There was no reason…none at all.

“Why are we able to see you?” Aki asked as they came to the car, her voice accusing and low. “ _What are you?_ ”

Jack, for all he had tried to assure himself of things until recent days, merely clenched his jaw and took to the air as they left the building. “…I don’t know!”

“Ahh-” “Wait-!”

And while half-shouted protests that confused others there were thrown to the air, Jack willed himself as far from earshot as he could.

And the curious hummingbird-like faeries flitting near the crowd chose to allow it, if at least for now.


	54. Chapter 54

When the car rolled up to Rex Godwin’s manor, the twins were pleasantly surprised to see the boy now standing on the back of the vehicle. Their unspoken relief, joined with Yuusei’s, was met with a snort as the blond hopped down- “I just want answers,” he growled, and as Mikage left to fetch Rex, he looked over the building in distaste. It was his fault, he felt, that Yuusei was in half of the messes here in the first place, but he wasn’t ready to admit that either.

As it was, it appeared Rua had been waiting. “We’ve been really worried you know!” he excitedly chattered as they walked up the stairs themselves. “You just sort of vanished while we were in the hospital, and then there was that big KABOOM, and half of it was ruined..!” Ah, seriously?! That big!?

Before he could voice his shock, Ruka merely nodded. “Fortunately, there were no casualties, but it was quite a commotion…”

“Either way, it’s really good that you’re alright, Jack..!”

“Jack?” The twins froze, and Jack himself stiffened as Rex Godwin stepped forward. There was something eerily familiar about the man, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on-and Rua, now over his shock, was eager to explain.

“He’s the spirit that gave us Red Daemons!” he insisted, Ruka herself nodding with an anxious grimace.

“…We decided to give it back, if that’s alright though. Red Daemons still wants to be with Jack…” The other signers seemed to watch as the conversation unfolded, one with interest, the other with confusion.

Rex, it seemed, only barely held onto the latter. “I see,” he instead noted, eyes passing over where the twins had been speaking.

“Tch. I’ll just see myself out..!” Jack decided, a bit of fire flashing from the spot. The man jumped in turn, but Jack paid no mind, not even as the twins began to protest.

“Aaaah-!” “Jack, it’s alright…”

“…‘Jack’, you say…” Rex closed his eyes-and before Jack flew away, the spirit found himself tensing. “…Ah…”

…He could see him. Jack froze, and looked toward the other, eyes widening as Rex’s own seemed to do the same for a hair of a moment. “Y…You can…”

The man merely smiled, and gestured for the others to follow. “How interesting…” he murmured, and somehow the spirit felt rooted to the spot with _fear_ more than anything else. “…It seems all of you will need to hear what I have to say then. Come-I will explain the battle of the Signers and Dark Signers,” he told them, the group merely stunned silent.

It was belief. It had to have been belief, after all.

But all Jack could think of was how he swore a chill passed through him in that moment, when he had once again been acknowledged.


	55. Chapter 55

While they walked, they learned of the details of ‘Arcadia’ to start with. Aki’s comments and demands to know what occurred to the building led there after all, particularly when the question of Misty’s accusations to her had come up. They did not need to watch any videos for proof of the building’s actions, not when Godwin explained it to them with such clipped tones. Not when he led them onward with such severity that there was no choice but to focus on the matters ahead.

He felt warm, as they walked. It was something that caused him to bring his hand over his heart, as if the heat was focused there-and the action was observed in silence by Godwin as they continued on. When the Signers marks began to shine as well however, it became clear what the heat was. They had entered a large, almost ancient room, one that the twins seemed familiar with. Above them was the mark of a dragon-the 'Crimson Dragon’, he could hear Rua mutter, and somehow he was not only left silent, but left unable to do more than stare. He felt 'smaller’ somehow, being here. As if in the presence of something that could crush him in an instant, while also feeling a kinship.

“This is the mark of the Crimson Dragon,” Godwin was explaining, for the benefit of those who hadn’t been there before. “It is the symbol passed down as legend by the People of the Stars.” The marks and the dragon both glowed brilliantly, and before them a doorway opened up to lead them onward. Onward to a temple-and to a set of stairs pointing to nothing. “It is a mark that drives its chosen to one fate, and only one. An inescapable path,” he remarked, though his eyes seemed to linger over Jack for more than a few moments as he said so.

Each of them-the signers at least-had something bringing them there it felt. However insignificant, however small it seemed-they had come there. It could not be denied, Godwin explained. They were the incarnations of the Signers of the Past, and they were fated to repeat what those of the past had done. Jack drowned out their words. He drowned them out the moment fate came into being, unable to focus. What did it mean, when he had carried the mark and then died then?

What did it  _mean_ , when he felt such a strong flame here, with his mark gone, when he felt such pain when the dragon arose and when the Dark Signers touched him?

Abruptly the world around them seemed to change, and Jack was pulled from his thoughts with a shout, the others gasping as the ground beneath them showed the Nazca Lines as they would appear from miles above. “You are the Signers-but your opponents are Dark Signers,” Godwin told them. “The Crimson Dragon and his warriors sealed demonic gods of darkness within the earth, and these seals were the Nazca lines. As they have awoken,” he warns, the lines beginning to fade below, “They have taken their lines with them, granted their own forms. Some of you have faced them,” he commented, and Yuusei in particular seemed ashamed, while Aki merely grimaced and glanced to the side. Once again, Jack felt the eyes of Godwin upon him, and somehow he felt ill. “They are those who bear the marks of these gods…and their arrival marks the coming battle that will decide the fate of the world.”

“…It’s why their lines destroyed everyone inside, isn’t it?” Yuusei questioned, and Jack found himself thinking back to the effects of the lines on himself and Frost. “…I saw people turn to dust, and vanish,” he continued, anger building in his voice. “ _Sacrificed_ , to them!”

“And you are correct.” While the others stared, the twins in particular appearing to tremble, Godwin merely continued to confirm the suspicions. Where each line had fallen, casualties were innumerable and impossible to avoid. They were 'Sacrificed’. All of them, in an inst-

“What happens to them, if we stop the Dark Signers then?”

It was Jack who finally spoke, the glasses in his pocket feeling heavy at his side.

“…Do you think yourself able to join this fight, Jack?” Jack merely clenched his fists and leveled a stare toward Godwin in reply, and the man neither smiled, nor even frowned. “…Whether you can or cannot, we must act immediately. The battle is inevitable-you are Light and Dark, the Signers and Dark Signers. Either they win, and the entire world faces what those in the marker’s vicinity did, or you seal them back within the ground. That is your fate.”

“But then what makes a Dark Signer to begin with?” It was Yuusei again, now. And Jack as well listened in, joining in himself.

After all- “The one that Yuusei fought was dead years ago,” he explained with half a shout. “Is that the Earthbound God’s power, then? To bring back the dead?”

“No.” And the group stared. “…It would be inaccurate, to say they were 'alive’…what you witness is a mobile corpse. There is no way to return them to their original state. They are spirits awoken by the power of the gods. They’re no longer of this world.”

“And isn’t that the same for me then..!?” Jack snapped in return, his friend jumping. The others were rendered silent…

…And yet somehow, Godwin had his answer. “…I cannot be sure, Jack. …I’ve never seen anyone like you-and yet your presence here seems so connected to that of the Crimson Dragon…” He finally allowed a smirk to come over his face, and Jack found himself seething in reply. “…Perhaps he did not wish to let his former Signer go.”

And of course, he would know about that, Jack thought grimly. Of course…

'Make your decisions’, Godwin had told them, and he led them back out. 'Your time is running out-and you must act soon.’

They returned to the rooms above, and Godwin left them to their own devices. And Jack, feeling the stares of many more than just Godwin himself, found himself following the man.


	56. Chapter 56

“…What do you know?!”

Jack did not shout until they were truly alone, the sunlight burning outside, and Jack barely containing his own fires. And as Godwin stared in silence, Jack repeated himself.

“…You saw me after only hearing my name… …You let me come in, and asked if I would fight…So what do you know?  _Really_!?”

“You think I may be lying?”

“Of course you’re lying!” Jack insisted in turn, and Godwin merely chuckled as he continued to walk away. “Hey!! Tell me!!”

“I don’t know any more about yourself, than you do,” Godwin called back, giving little more than a glance as he turned the corner. “Only that your connection to the dragon is one that has yet to sever. …You’ll need to choose what to do with that yourself, Jack.”

“What!?”

There were no more answers. Not after that, and Jack found himself standing in the hall with nothing else to say or do.

Nothing except to hop through the window and take a seat on one of the lower roof-tops, locating the rest of the Signers and disappearing into thoughts upon what all of this even meant.


	57. Chapter 57

It was not hard to see that Yuusei was keeping to himself. Jack supposed that he was doing the same, of course-in part out of habit, and in part out of the many emotions stewing in his own chest, emotions that for now were far easier to ignore in lieu of focusing on the others. It was that reason that had him float down to where Yuusei was, however, and the teen sat up when he spotted Jack’s approach.

“…Jack,” he greeted, nodding. “…You’re back.”

“…He didn’t want to talk,” Jack replied with a slight grumble, not wishing to think about the matter. Instead he frowned to Yuusei, and focused on him. “…The others seem to be ready,” the boy remarked. At the very least, they were grouped together and now discussing  _something_ , and Yuusei glanced over to them himself. It did not take long before he looked away however, and as Jack caught the guilt in his eyes, the blond fumed. “…Oi!” he growled, clenching his staff. “…Didn’t you hear me? They’re ready to fight, Yuusei..! So-”

“So we will be fighting  _Kiryu_.” Yuusei’s words cut Jack short, and the teen grimaced, shaking his head. “…I knew he was dead… I knew, even without going their myself,” he lamented, “But for him to be like this? It was bad enough, that he was dead..! It was bad enough for me to do this to him once, but now twice?!”

He flinched, but he hurriedly regained his composure, shaking. “Th- Whether that’s what will happen or not isn’t the point..! You saw what he did, and we have to stop him!”

“I KNOW!” Yuusei countered. “But I  _put him on that path_..!”

“The hell you did!” his friend replied instantly, but of course, Yuusei refused to believe as much.

Instead, Yuusei’s face grew red, his eyes watering as he shook. “Jack…I could have stopped him..! I could have helped him if I had spoken to him earlier, I could have done _SOMETHING_ , anything-”

“ _SO COULD I_!”

“That isn’t the same thing-”

“Of course it isn’t..!” Jack finally roared, “Because you’re not the one who BROUGHT THE POLICE TO HIS DOOR!”

“Th….”

Yuusei’s tears had threatened to start, but never came. Though his eyes were shining, they were quickly dry, the teen staring at his friend in stunned silence.

It was not like Jack’s tears.

For Jack’s eyes welled in moments, and flowed freely as the events from years ago came back to his mind with haunting clarity. “ _I_  led them there… ..I used fire to keep him from Crow when Crow left…I kept watch as you stayed at his side and tried to keep him from falling farther… But where you did something,  _I RAN_..! I ran, and watched, until he set off that bomb! And then when you tried to turn yourself in for him… _I brought them to the right person_!”

“Jack…”

He hated it, being this open. It was something he wasn’t used to, and yet the only thing he now knew. There was no one to see if he was hiding his emotions for all the years since he had died, except for Frost after all-it left him honest, and vulnerable, and he felt weak and even pathetic as a result. But the tears would not stop, no matter how hard he tried, and his lantern fell from his hand as his voice broke. “ _I_  killed Kiryu… …I killed him,  _and he knows it_..! …but it’s you, who has to fight him now in this battle..! And that… …that…”

It should have been his fight. His mark of the dragon, driving him there-hell, if he had lived, perhaps this could have been prevented all along. He had no way of knowing, and the knowledge was crushing him, even as Yuusei’s hand reached for him and caused the boy to flinch.

“Nh-”

…It rested gently on his shoulder, and reminded him that he was not so tall next to his friend, as he had been once before.

“…Did you think I would hit you, for admitting such things?” Yuusei sounded almost amused-though he had the sense not to rub further salt in Jack’s wounded pride by giving the boy a hug. Instead, his grip on the other’s shoulder tightened-reminding him that they were both there, that they could  _both_  see, and feel the other now.

That they were not alone, not this time.

“…I didn’t realize what you meant, when you said you were always there,” he told him softly, closing his eyes with a nod. “…But… …I understand, now. …More than that though, this isn’t just my fight, Jack. This is  _our_ fight,” Yuusei insisted. “We’ll face Kiryu together!”

But how would he fight, he wanted to ask, only staring at the other. It was  _strange_ , to be on the other side of such words. To have words at all, instead of trading punches and laying back on the ground exhausted, like when they were both truly just young boys. Before all of this nonsense of dragons and gods, of good and evil and the end of the world…

…He found himself smirking, albeit for a moment. And in reply, Yuusei brought his hand back and raised a fist instead. “…We’ll fight for a world where you can be seen, Jack. By more than just ‘Signers’, neh?”

“HNN! Of course!” he laughed, slamming his fist against the other’s in turn. Yuusei barely budged under the blow, but his expression was all that Jack needed to share his message. They weren’t 'dead’. They still had their pride, and their will to move on. They would pull through this, and  _had_ to pull through!

Yuusei had nothing more to say-instead he looked toward the other Signers, leaving to join them and likely tell them that he was ready as well. But as he left, Jack found that his grin began to fall again…and his hand reached within his pocket, again finding that weight from before, pulling out cracked glasses that gleamed under the sun.

…It was already a world where he could be seen, wasn’t it?

…it wasn’t fair… …that the first one to do so couldn’t be part of it.


	58. Chapter 58

The sunset was beautiful, until reality struck again. Just as Yuusei and Aki seemed to be getting along, as the twins had managed to calm themselves of the news of what would happen, a sensation of illness had overcome Jack from where he lay back on the roof to take in the sky. He sat up in time to see Mikage running toward the elder of the Signers-for the twins to join the group, and for the faces of all of them to fall. He joined them, in time to hear one thing-

_‘Something just happened in Satellite.’_

The Signers were loaded into a helicopter alongside Security Officer Ushio mere moments later. There was an argument of course-whatever it was, it was smoothed over by Mikage rather quickly-but the argument was hardly of importance, and Jack clung to the side of the copter with only slight difficulty until they managed to come near enough to Satellite to land. It was no doubt Yuusei’s input that had them land at Martha’s home-and once they did so, he was almost tempted to ask what it was he and Godwin had spoken about just before they left.

“Yuusei!”

He decided against it as Martha rushed toward them, the blond only realizing what was happening after she passed _through_ him.

“Ghhhh- _HHHAAAUUHHH-_ ” It was sheer force of will that kept the twins from shouting, but they still gasped, a sound hurriedly muffled by that same will. Aki herself seemed to stiffen in place, while Yuusei’s own response seemed cloaked only by Martha’s arms pulling him into a worried embrace as she began to tell him about the black 'fog’ that had rolled through the city not far from them. They could only watch as Jack stumbled to the side, regaining his breath and looking to Martha as if he had been kicked-but before he could allow the hurt of the act to sink in, he fled for the roof.

He did not watch what the others did, from there. He thought he heard them go inside, Ushio and Mikage alongside them. At some point, Mikage began to hold a briefing for the Signers…but while he listened from above, he only did so half-heartedly, finding himself rooted to the roof and shaking even an hour after Martha had passed through his form. It was no different from anyone else-if he had allowed himself to come near anyone in fact, it would have been the same. Yet it had been so long, since he had allowed it at all…so long, since he had been close enough to be passed through, as though he were mere air.

….Ushio was cleaning, he noted. Martha had tugged him about by the ear, putting him to work on one thing or the other after spotting him moping, and the sight slowly brought a smirk to his face. It was a more welcome distraction, he found. Something happier to think on, something-

“G-OH!” This time, as he was pushed to the ground by something white, the Signers inside found themselves struggling not to comment on the blur of red that had just passed the window. “F-FROST?!”

“What! Surprised to see me?” As Frost laughed and got off the other, Jack huffed, pulling himself to his feet.

“You were pretty much dead..! And I told you not to follow me-”

“And leave you hanging?” the ice spirit scoffed, crossing his arms. “I might have let you down before,” he began seriously, “But I’m not about to let you think of us as 'Guardians who do nothing’ forever. We’re going to have your back in this. …Whatever it is,” he added with a humored grin, his friend merely staring in disbelief.

“Th- The Sandman couldn’t even come here..!! What the hell are you and the others going to do, if they can’t even come here, and you just end up dying..!!”

“I mean, it’s a work in progress,”

“WORK IN- THAT’S  _STUPI-_ ”

“Firelights!!” The children’s voices cut the argument short, leaving the Signers to no longer worry about who it was that Jack was arguing with. As far as they knew, he was shouting at air-but the children who actually lived there saw and heard less, only catching sight of the fragments of flame that Jack had started to give off in the heated shouting match.

“Huh! Familiar with you, are they?”

Jack merely grumbled. “It’s not like they can see  _me_ …” he muttered, watching as Ushio and the children began chatting with themselves. They were trading stories it sounded like. Stories that Martha was listening in on, and the Signers as well-Ushio spoke of fires that he’d seen a few times in his first year or so on the force at Satellite, the children of lights that would lead them back in sight of the house, or merely keep them warm until Martha found them… …Some of them had even been brought there by fire in the first place, a fact that had Jack shrinking back a bit as he felt Yuusei and the others look toward him. “…They needed somewhere to stay..!” he huffed in his 'defense’, crossing his arms. “It’s not like I-”

What he 'didn’t’ do was never revealed, unfortunately. As suddenly as Frost had hit Jack off the roof, the glass of the nearest windows shattered, and thunder clapped in the air. And as the sensation if illness returned again, the light of the Signer Marks starting to light up in the dark, all attention moved toward matters of far greater importance.


End file.
